Today's Gospel

The Gift of Doubt

Do you ever have doubts about your faith? Today is an epic gospel, one of those classic gospels we're all familiar with. We've heard many times in our lives. And so an opportunity to peel back new layers of the Scripture. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of John chapter 20 verses 19 through 31. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.' When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Now, Thomas, one of the 12 called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and place my finger in the mark of the nails and place my hand in his side, I will not believe." Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." And then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not be faithless, but believe." And Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God." And Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet believe." Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe in Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. So remember, each time we listen to the gospel, we're listening for a word or a phrase or an idea that jumps out at you that the Holy Spirit uses to capture your attention, your imagination. There's so many, this is a great reading, and there's so many opportunities for reflection and meditation here. There are two that strike me. One is Thomas' response, he says, "My Lord and my God," which is a confession of faith, right? In my parish at home in Sydney, in the suburbs of Sydney, when I was growing up, where the tabernacle was up behind the altar, there was a little ledge of stone underneath the tabernacle and engraved into the stone was Thomas' confession of faith. Engraved into the stone, it said, "My Lord and my God." And I'm not sure how I picked it up. Maybe my parents taught me, or maybe there was someone else who encouraged me to do this but when you're going to the church and you genuflect–I was taught to say this confession of faith each time I genuflect in front of the tabernacle. And it's a lifelong habit now, genuflect. And I say this little confession of faith, "My Lord and my God," which is an acknowledgement, right, that Jesus is in the temple, that his true presence is there. My Lord and my God, it's a confession of faith, an expression of faith every time I genuflect before the Tabernacle.

And so I can't read this reading without having that memory of my home parish and honestly being immensely grateful that someone taught me that because it's these little habits that can lead to deep faith. We know that one of the crises of our age is so many people don't believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. And something like that, being taught, okay, Jesus is present in the Eucharist. Jesus is present in the Tabernacle. Every time you genuflect, you pray Thomas's prayer, right? My Lord of my God is a confession of faith, an expression of faith. And so over and over throughout my life, right, this is being ingrained into my heart and my soul that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. And I'm immensely grateful for these little habits that were introduced to me along the way to help me grow in my faith and to sustain my faith.

The other thing that strikes me here today is that Thomas is traditionally referred to as doubting Thomas. And the reality is we all have doubts. We all have doubts about many things. We have doubts about ourselves. We have doubts about other people. And we have doubts about our faith. We have doubts about God. We have doubts. And doubting is part of the human condition. And so the only question becomes, how do we deal with our doubts? And there are many ways to deal with our doubts, just as there's many ways to deal with most things. Some ways are healthy. Some ways are unhealthy. And unhealthy ways to deal with doubts are to ignore them, to pretend they don't exist, and just hope they will go away. But of course, hope isn't a strategy. And so we're called to confront our doubts.

In today's gospel, Jesus literally confronts Thomas' doubts. And in confronting his doubts, what happened to his fate? It grew exponentially, right? I mean, off the charts, through the roof. And that is the gift that our doubts want to give us. Our doubts want to help us grow in faith. Now we can ignore them or we can investigate them. And what I would say is, when you have a doubt, go deep into it. If you disagree with the church about something, dive deep into that issue. Don't just say, "Well, I know better than 2,000 years of the best Catholic minds." Go deep into that issue and allow that issue to expand your vision of yourself, your vision of God, your vision of the church, your vision of the faith, and your experience of all those things as well. And so our doubts are a gift. And learning to see them as a gift changes the way we feel about them, changes the way we process them, changes the way we approach them. Our doubts are a gift or an opportunity to grow in our faith. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.