Fr. Manuel João, comboni missionary
Sunday Reflection
from the womb of my whale, ALS
Our cross is the pulpit of the Word
The Easter of Thomas
Year B – Easter – 2nd Sunday
John 20:19-31: “My Lord and my God!”
Today, the second Sunday of Easter, we celebrate… the “Easter of St. Thomas”, the apostle who was absent from the apostolic community last Sunday!
The themes that the gospel proposes to us are many: Sunday (“the first day of the week”); the Peace of the Risen Lord and the joy of the apostles; the “Pentecost” and the Mission of the apostles (according to John’s gospel); the gift and the task entrusted to the apostles to forgive sins (for which, for some years now, we celebrate the “Sunday of the Divine Mercy”); the theme of the community (from which Tommaso had absent!); but above all the theme of faith! I will limit myself to dwelling on the figure of Thomas.
Thomas, our twin
His name means ‘double’ or ‘twin’. Thomas has a prominent place among the apostles; perhaps this is why the Acts and Gospel of Thomas, apocrypha of the 4th century, were attributed to him, “important for the study of Christian origins” (Benedict XVI, 27.9.2006).
We would like to know to whom Thomas is a twin. He could be Nathanael (Bartholomew). Indeed, this last profession of faith, made by Thomas, corresponds with the first one, made by Nathanael, at the beginning of John’s gospel (1:45-51). Moreover, their character and behaviour are strikingly similar. Finally, the two names appear relatively close together in the list of the Twelve (see Matthew 10:3; Acts 1:13; and also John 21:2).
This unknown gives room to affirm that Thomas is “a twin of each of us” (Don Tonino Bello). Thomas comforts us in our doubts as believers. In him we mirror ourselves and, through his eyes and hands, we too “see” and “touch” the body of the Risen One. An interpretation that has its charm!…
Thomas, a “double”?
In the Bible, the most famous pair of twins is that of Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25: 24-28), eternal antagonists, an expression of the dichotomy and polarity of the human condition. Could it be that Thomas (the ‘double’!) carries within himself the antagonism of this duality? Capable, at times, of gestures of great generosity and courage, while at other times he is incredulous and stubborn. But when confronted with the Master, his profound identity as a believer who proclaims his faith with readiness and conviction again emerges.
Thomas carries his ‘twin’ inside. The apocryphal Gospel of Thomas emphasises this duplicity: “First you were one, but you have become two” (n°11); “Jesus said: When you will make two into one, then you will become the sons of Adam” (n°105). Thomas is the image of us all. We too carry within us such a ‘twin’, inflexible and staunch defender of his own ideas, obstinate and capricious in his attitudes.
These two realities or ‘creatures’ (the old and the new Adam) coexist badly, in contrast, sometimes in open warfare, in our hearts. Who has never experienced the suffering of this inner laceration?
Now, Thomas has the courage to face this reality. He allows his dark, adverse and unbelieving side to manifest itself, and brings it to face Jesus. He accepts the challenge thrown down by his ‘rebellious’ interiority that demands to see and touch… He takes it to Jesus and faced with the evidence, the ‘miracle’ happens. The two ‘Thomases’ become one and proclaim the same faith: “My Lord and my God!”
Unfortunately, this is not what happens with us. Our Christian communities are attended almost exclusively by ‘good twins’ and submissive, but also … passive and amorphous! The fact is that they are not there in their ‘entirety’. The energetic, instinctive part, the part that would need to be evangelised, does not appear at the ‘encounter’ with Christ.
Jesus said that he was coming for sinners, but our churches are attended by the ‘righteous’ who … do not feel the need to convert! The one who should convert, the other twin, the “sinner”, we leave him quietly at home. It is Sunday, he takes the opportunity to “rest” and entrust the day to the “good twin”. On Monday, then, the twin of instincts and passions will be in full form to take over again.
Jesus in search of Thomas
Would that Jesus had many Thomas! In the Sunday celebration, it is especially of them that the Lord comes in search… They will be his “twins”! God seeks ‘real’ men and women, who relate to him as they are: sinners who ‘suffer’ in their own flesh the tyranny of instincts. Believers who are not ashamed to appear with this unbelieving, grace-resistant side. Who do not come to make a good impression in the “assembly of believers”, but to meet with the Doctor of Divine Mercy and be healed. It is of these that Jesus becomes a brother!
The world needs the testimony of honest believers who are able to recognise their errors, doubts and difficulties and who do not hide their ‘duplicity’ behind a façade of Pharisaic ‘respectability’. The mission truly needs disciples who are authentic people and not “crooked-necked”!… Of missionaries who look straight at the reality of suffering and touch with their hands the wounds of the crucified of today!…
Thomas invites us to reconcile our duplicity to make Easter!
Word of Jesus, according to the … Gospel of Thomas (No. 22.27): “When you make two to be one, and you make the inside like the outside, and the outside like the inside, and the top like the bottom, and when you make male and female one (…) then you will enter the Kingdom!”
For the weekly reflection, I recommend the continued reading of the First Letter of John.
P. Manuel João Pereira Correia mccj
Verona, 4 April 2024
For the complete reflection, see:
https://comboni2000.org/2024/04/04/la-mia-riflessione-domenicale-la-pasqua-di-tommaso/
