Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle
When we hear today’s Gospel about Thomas coming to faith in the Resurrection of Christ, one thing that should stand out to us is the gentleness and understanding of the God who is attentive to our every need. Notice that Christ did not spurn Thomas. He did not expel him from the room or dismiss him from the group of the Apostles. Rather, he gave him everything that he needed to come to full belief. It’s almost funny to think that when Thomas stated his conditions for belief in the Resurrection - namely, to be able to touch the wounds and side of Christ - he probably thought that they were absolutely insurmountable. And yet but a little while later, Christ Himself gave Thomas precisely that which he had previously thought impossible.
God operates the same way with us even in the course of our daily lives. How often do we create barriers in our minds that we don’t believe God can overcome? How often do we doubt His ability or willingness to enter into difficult situations or to mend this or that injury in our relationships with others? There are two things that we must keep in mind: 1) that God absolutely loves us more than we can imagine and infinitely desires our good in every possible way and 2) that there is no problem, difficulty, injury, or situation that God cannot and will not take care of for us if we truly invite Him in and abandon ourselves to His loving care. His solutions may not be the ones that we expect, but they will assuredly be what is truly best for us. Today, let us search our hearts for those opportunities in our own lives to open ourselves more fully to God’s desires to care for us. Where are those areas where we have perhaps closed our minds or hearts and prematurely foreclosed on God’s ability or desire to enter into our difficulties or hardships?