3 July 2025 - Feast of Saint Thomas
Homily
Each of the Evangelists has told us in his own way about the events that followed Christ's Resurrection. Above all, we must not try to reconcile their chronology of events. In reality, they are not interested in chronology and are not trying to give us an exact description of the events. Rather, they want to give us a theological vision. Luke, who organises his Gospel around Jerusalem and the Temple, spreads the events after the Resurrection over a period of fifty days, corresponding to the Jewish liturgy. John, the mystical theologian with the piercing gaze, brings together almost all these events in a single day, the day of the Resurrection itself.
On the evening of the day of the Resurrection, when the disciples, trembling with fear, had locked the doors of the place where they were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus was suddenly in their midst. But Thomas was not there.
I have great sympathy and admiration for Thomas. He seems to have been the only one of the group of disciples who was not afraid. At least he was braver than the others. If he was not there when Jesus appeared to the disciples on Easter evening, it was probably because he had gone to get something to eat for the others, who were too scared to go out. When he came back and was told: "We have seen the Lord", his reaction was normal: "If I don't see the nail marks in his hands, if I don't put my finger where the nails are, if I don't put my hand in his side, no, I won't believe it". He knows how afraid others are and how, when we are afraid, we are ready to believe anything to reassure ourselves.
When Jesus appeared again, eight days later, and said to Thomas: "Put your finger here and see my hands; put your hand here and put it in my side", Thomas made the most beautiful act of faith that no one had ever made before: "My Lord and my God". This is a real act of faith; not the easy trust of a man who is afraid, but the deep and enlightened faith of a courageous man who has recognised his Lord and his God. Thomas is the first person in the Gospel to address Jesus directly, using the name "Lord". John therefore presents him to us as the very figure of the believer (and not the unbeliever).
In his Gospel, John presents us with two people who, after the resurrection, are not afraid, and who can therefore proclaim their faith in Jesus. The first is Mary Magdalene. On Easter morning, the women went to the tomb and found it empty. They were afraid and fled. Mary Magdalene was the only one who was not afraid. She stayed there, close to the tomb. When the angels ask her what she is looking for, she answers: "They have taken away my Lord (Kurios)". These words are very important. For Mary Magdalene, Jesus is not just a great prophet, or even just the Messiah, according to general aspirations. He is the Lord, the Kurios, the Son of God. Because Mary has already recognised Jesus as Lord, she is not afraid, and because she is not afraid Jesus can manifest Himself to her. And yet, when she addresses Jesus, she does not call him directly "Lord" (rabbi) but "my teacher" -- rabbouni.
Armand Veilleux