{"id":5567,"date":"2006-09-27T08:02:28","date_gmt":"2006-09-27T08:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/09\/on-st-thomas.html"},"modified":"2006-09-27T08:02:28","modified_gmt":"2006-09-27T08:02:28","slug":"on-st-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/09\/on-st-thomas.html","title":{"rendered":"On St. Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ga\"<\/a> Today’s General Audience:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

The proverbial \u201cunbelief\u201d of Thomas is of comfort for all who have doubts and uncertainties, while the questions he asked Jesus about his divinity give \u201cus too the right to ask Jesus for explanations\u201d. With this modern take, open to non believers, Benedict XVI today resumed his catechesis on the personalities of the apostles, dedicating today\u2019s to the apostle Thomas (known as \u201cDidimo<\/em>\u201d, that is, twin). <\/p>\n

He is famous for his stipulation \u2013 after the resurrection of the Lord \u2013that he would believe in Jesus\u2019 resurrection only if he could put \u201cmy finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side\u201d (cfr Jn 20:25). The pope said: \u201cFrom these words, emerges the conviction that Jesus is now recognizable not so much from his face as much as his wounds. Thomas holds the wounds to be the qualifying signs of Jesus\u2019 identity, which reveal the point to which He loved us. In this, the Apostle is not mistaken.\u201d The pontiff recalled that the demand to \u201csee\u201d and \u201ctouch\u201d the wounds of the risen lord were satisfied by Jesus, who however reminded him that \u201cBlessed are those who do not see and yet believe.\u201d And here Benedict XVI paved the way for believers and non believers who seek confirmation or verification of the Christian faith: \u201cThe case of the apostle Thomas is important for us for at least three reasons: first, because it comforts us in our insecurities; secondly, because doubt can lead to an enlightened outcome beyond all uncertainty, and finally, because the words spoken by Jesus remind us of the true meaning of mature faith, encouraging us to persevere, despite the difficulties, in our walk of devotion to Him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The catechesis about the personalities of the apostles serves not only to understand the history of the Church but also to grasp the present \u201cwhat it means to follow Jesus\u201d, as the pope himself explained at the start of the cycle. Thus, from the resolve expressed by Thomas in the words spoken before the Passion of Jesus, \u2018Let us also go, that we may die with him\u2019 (Jn 11:16), the pope said: \u201cHis determination to follow the Teacher is truly exemplary and offers us a precious teaching: it reveals total availability to belong to Jesus, to the point of identifying one\u2019s fate with His, to want to share with Him the supreme trial of death. In effect, the most important thing is never to distance oneself from Jesus. On the other hand, when the Gospels use the word \u2018follow\u2019, it means that where He goes, there his disciple should go too. In this way, Christian life is described as a life with Jesus Christ, one spent together with Him. St Paul wrote something similar when he reassured the Christians of Corinth: \u201cYou are in our hearts, to die together and to live together\u201d (2 Cor 7:3). That which transpires between the Apostle and his Christians should, of course, be valid first of all for the relationship between Christians and Jesus himself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s General Audience: The proverbial \u201cunbelief\u201d of Thomas is of comfort for all who have doubts and uncertainties, while the questions he asked Jesus about his divinity give \u201cus too the right to ask Jesus for explanations\u201d. With this modern take, open to non believers, Benedict XVI today resumed his catechesis on the personalities of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nOn St. Thomas - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/09\/on-st-thomas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On St. Thomas - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today’s General Audience: The proverbial \u201cunbelief\u201d of Thomas is of comfort for all who have doubts and uncertainties, while the questions he asked Jesus about his divinity give \u201cus too the right to ask Jesus for explanations\u201d. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}