Posted by The WORD in Other Words by Fr Randy Flores SVD (Philippines) on the Feast of St Thomas the Apostle
“Dial pati, diakkita!”(I won’t believe it until I see it myself). If Thomas were an Ilocano, he would have used this popular saying when he reacted to the claim of his fellow disciples that they had seen the Lord. He was not present when the Risen Lord appeared so his was but a natural reaction. His failure to see the Risen Lord then turned out, in the end, to be providential.
From his absence was born one of the great Christological confessions in the New Testament: “My Lord and my God!” And, to our envy, He got to touch the nail-marks of the Risen Lord. No greater grace than to feel the glorified flesh of the Savior! Believers, like us who were born thousands of years later, are equally if not more than blessed even if we were not there: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
To believe, however, is a journey, like Thomas’. A friend of mine lost her baby just few days before she was due to deliver. It devastated her, her husband and all who loved her. How in the world could God ignore all our prayers for a safe delivery?
Ironically, the baby’s name was Zakar – “He [God]) has remembered.” Like Thomas, then, we would have liked to touch Jesus to get some form of consolation. But the “voice heard in Ramah” was louder: “sobbing and loud lamentation; the weeping for Zakar, she would not be consoled, since he is no more” (adapted from Matthew 21:18; cf. Jeremiah 31:15).
May moments like this, lead us to the road of faith, even if it’s long and winding—and dare to say once more, “My Lord and my God!”
Source – Bible Diary 2020
