I HOPE ALL OF YOU HAD A WONDERFUL AND JOYOUS EASTER!
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SUNDAY OF THOMAS!
You can only imagine what it must have been like to be with the Apostles as their leader and master was handed over to the Romans to be crucified. What solace and consolation could they gain from such a horrific act, because only fear and trembling had pierce their hearts. Not only that, but what hope, inspiration, and enlightenment could the execution of their master bestow upon them since it appeared that He had abandon them.
The Sunday of Thomas is celebrated eight days after our Lord’s Resurrection. It is a day that our Lord reviles Himself to the eleven Apostles as they sat in the upper room hiding from the Jews. Depressed and feeling hopeless the Apostles huddled together to evaluate their next move. Their master before His death had thousands of followers who He healed from every infirmity and even death. Now all of them were no were to be found, but hid themselves for fear of being associated with Him and imprisoned.
His appearance must have shocked them as He walked through the closed door. This was a true change in realities from His earthly makeup before His death. What a metamorphosis and change from this material form we possess, to a dimension where He was able to be both physically present, and capable to walk throw walls. Only the Father really understands this change, and it is the first time that humanity has seen the resurrected body in its glory. Christ was the first human to experience this change of our fallen nature and reality into a reality that truly surpasses this one.
At Christ’s first appearance not all the Apostles were present, Thomas (called the Twin) was absent. When Thomas returned and the Apostles told him that they had seen the Lord, he did not believe them. When He reappeared to them a week later Thomas was with them and Christ told him specifically to put his finger in He side and His hands. Thomas’ belief came only when he could physically touch our Lord’s wounded body and believe that it was Him. Doubt was a characteristic flaw that Thomas had ingrained in his psyche, and only when he could empirically prove that it was the Lord he would believe.
As it turns out, it was the resurrected Lord who was showing him and us the transformation we will all undergo when we are all resurrected on the Day of Judgment. Some will go to Eternal Judgment and others to Eternal Life in the Lord. Our nature will change as Christ’s did, and we will retain a body as Christ did, but it will be a more perfect one able to eat if you wish and still walk throw closed doors as Christ did. Our physical nature will undergo a miraculous transformation, as a creeping crawling ugly caterpillar does when it immerges out of its cocoon into a beautiful flying butterfly.
Is our belief contingent upon seeing and touching the Lord as it was with Thomas, or do we believe because we trust what transpired so many years ago? Without the Resurrection of our Lord He would only be one of the many prophets that God sent to the Jews to guide and help them stay on the correct road toward salvation.
Finally, without Thomas we would have a different understanding of who the Lord was, and our connection to the resurrection. Christ would not have us ignorant to the events that will take place after we fall asleep in the Lord, and without Thomas we would not completely understand this wonderful transformation that we are promised after our earthly death. We should become true and authentic Christians who believe without question that this was the Son of God who died and was resurrected from the dead for all of us to believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN!