Redoubtable Thomas: the Twin

Today, we observe St. Thomas Sunday. Since about sixth century the appellation "Incredulous Thomas" began to appear, first in the West depicted in mosaics in Ravenna, Italy giving rise to theme called "the Incredulity of Thomas." This occurs much later in the East. The Gospels are ambiguous on this subject. And the Fathers do not mention it, with St. John Chrysostom and St. Cyril of Alexandra preferring to interpret the scene through a Eucharistic lens (but more on that later). We here call him not "Doubting Thomas" but rather "the Redoubtable Thomas" — Thomas the formidable, the fearsome, the mighty.

The Gospels most certainly attest this figure. He was bold. He was a larger-than-life figure. And if you do not know this, The Gospels most certainly attest this figure, not to mention the history of the Church. He was bold. He was a larger-than-life figure. Have you ever met people like this? They're prepossessing. I imagine him to be a large man. If you do not understand this, you will not understand anything else about him.

Whatever the Master proposed, he was game. And for this temperament, Jesus (Who was given to nicknames) called Him Didymus, that is, "My Twin." From a very a early, perhaps second-century, source, we have this:

This is Jesus speaking to Thomas: "my Twin and true companion."

We first hear Thomas' voice in the Gospels right after Lazarus has died, and Jesus proposes going to Jerusalem. The disciples recoil as fear takes hold of them. They said,

But Thomas alone declares solidarity with the Master:

Thomas stands out from the others. And certainly he does not suffer from Simon bar-Jonah's malady, which is timidity, caution, and fearfulness.

Don't we detect a note of irony in the nickname, Petros in Greek or Cephas in Aramaic. The "Rock"! Well, Simon is anything but formidable. He is anything but immoveable and solid. Isn't he constantly dithering and changing his mind?

We may well imagine that being so close to the Master, Thomas would have been alienated from the others. Do you remember Thomas Huxley, "Darwin's bulldog"? Let us see Thomas the Apostle as "Jesus' bulldog."

As a consequence he would been on the receiving end of ceaseless antipathies and jealousies. Do you recall how the others reacted when John and James, the sons of Zebedee, pressed Jesus for coveted royal appointments .... prompted by an over-ambitious mother.

Matthew's account, in fact, goes to the rather embarrassing detail of their mother being their spokesman. They can't bring themselves to the sticking point, so their mother speaks for them. "Sons of Thunder" indeed! For they hide behind "mommy's skirts." Here again, we must admit, Jesus' nicknames have a certain ironic edge.

It is St. John the Evangelist who alone shines a spotlight on Peter's sorry performance as the Risen Christ challenges Peter. Here we have the Risen Christ. There no longer remains any doubt as to His special status. Life, after all, is brief. We don't want to disappoint the Holy One, risen from the dead. Yet Jesus challenges Peter to "love me with agápe love?" .... asked three times. And three times Peter replies that he will not. And then, in John's account, Peter points the finger of blame at John: "What about him?" And Jesus issues His flinty reply, "What's that to you?!"

That is Jesus, even after His Resurrection and His forty-days of instruction among them, still finds Himself in the midst of intense competitiveness and bickering and still must rule them with a stern hand.

What of the Redoubtable Thomas? No one dares to defame "the Twin." In the Gospels he is generally marginalized with silence. It is remarkable that this exemplar among the disciples should be allotted so few words in the Gospel accounts. The Evangelists are careful not to allot him too much attention because he immediately fills the room once you mention his name.

Do I say redoubtable? No disciple ventured further than Thomas. It was "no contest." Following Pentecost He set off immediately for the traditional heart of darkness, Mesopotamia, emulating Jonah's hated journey. I have pointed out in the past (the Sisters would say too many times) that Assyria was a great empire that had held in thrall Judea as their client state. They had installed their religion as a hybrid in the Zion Temple. Thomas symbolically heads straight for hated enemy. He would then found the Assyrian Church of the East, which still stands today.

Around the year 45, he resolved to go to India. India?! Even fifteen centuries hence Shakespeare would characterize India as the ne plus ultra (Midsummer Night's Dream, 2.1, As You Like It, 3.2), the end of the earth. Even today India is daunting with its 121 languages and 19,500 dialects, and certainly a hotbed of religious animosity, then and now. The Twin traveled the length and breadth of the subcontinent down the Malabar Coast along the Arabian Sea and, by some accounts, across the southern cape facing the Indian Ocean and then up the coast along the Bay of Bengal. He is said to have traveled with Indian traders even to the Pacific Ocean and Indonesia. My friends from Kerala tell me that today Thomas is by far the most common name among Christian boys. Is there any doubt that Thomas traveled to India.

Thomas, alone among the disciples who would proclaim boldly,

kneeling before His King. No disciple had dared even to dream that Jesus might be God. And remember the angels of Heaven were styled the "sons of God."

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Let us set the scene for the disciples' encounter with the Risen Christ. They are gathered. This in itself is remarkable. When men sin, generally they can't face each other afterwards. They are alienated. Sin proverbially is done in secret, far away from accusing eyes. Yet they are gathered .... albeit in a locked room. Is this the Upper Room, where they had last supped with the Lord? This was the last place they had gathered before the Crucifixion of Jesus. Perhaps their lease was still current. In any case, they had nowhere else to hide.

That the Twin is not present is what we would have predicted: on the one hand, the disciples hiding and skulking "for fear of the Jews" and, on the other, the redoubtable Thomas, walking boldly down in the street and through the marketplaces daring the authorities to arrest him, that he might join his "Twin," the Master, in death. Isn't this the contrast we have? A striking contrast! That is, Thomas would risk even death rather than breathe the same air as those men. And we may be sure: he would not, on any account, share their unanimous opinions. You see, he is on the breaking point — not wishing to part from them, yet not able to leave them, for these men alone had been through the same, three-year crucible as he. For who could return to quotidian life after being transformed, shaped, challenged, taught by God? Where would you go? What would you do? Would not anywhere and everywhere be vacant and meaningless?

Finally, he heads back to the room where the others have remained. He scorns the locked door as a reminder of their cowardice. And when it is unlocked, he must again endure their petty fears and imaginings. You see, they're huddled together feeding off of each other.

"We have seen the Lord!" they tell him.

And he considers the scene. When he left them, they were terror-stricken, like boys afraid of the dark. And he rejects their claims as unlikely in the extreme. He declares that it will take more than overheated and fearful imaginations to persuade him:

You see how empirical he is? "I don't want to hear about fantasies! I don't want to hear about your day dreams! I want the goods! Show me reality!" He's challenging them. The precision of this language gives his state of mind away: "the print of the nails" he says twice. He insists of sober-minded accuracy. He's a practical man.

At no time, does He demean the Master. He does not doubt that the Master is capable of revealing Himself. But he is highly skeptical of the claims made by his skittish confreres.

When the Lord does appear to again, this time to all eleven of them, Jesus sees a teachable moment. He is, after all, Rabbonai: the Teacher. And he echoes Thomas' vivid language. For his words are bold, memorable, and worthy for all believers to hold close to mind. And Jesus enunciates a principle that forever after goes to the heart of the Christian experience:

Of course, every Christian succeeding this golden period will be just this position: they will not have seen, yet they must believe. They will not have that high privilege of having seen Jesus. I dare say that this is every Christian's dearest wish. I recall as a seminarian attending a gathering for an evening led by a priest whom everyone revered. He asked us to close our eyes. And he summoned a scene. He asked us to "imagine a bubbling brook. By the streamside you see a figure at some distance. Go ahead. It's alright. He wants you to you approach him. Sit beside Him. And He turns. It's Jesus." There was not anyone in the room who did not have tears streaming down his face.

Nowhere is it recorded that Thomas touched Jesus. Nowhere is it averred that Thomas required proofs in order to believe. If there were any among them who did, Thomas is the last I would have suspected.

He maintained a respectful silence before the Master. He did not protest. His level of spiritual maturity was far beyond that. He does not explain. He does not complain. He keep his inner stillness. That is all.

Upon seeing the Risen Christ for the first time, he famously cries out

The others had merely said that they had "seen the Lord." Well, the "Lord" is what they had called Him everyday for three years. It is Thomas alone who countenances Jesus to be God. And this ringing sentence will echo down through the ages so long as one Christian remains to press palms together and whisper holy prayers. This ringing phrase: "my Lord and my God."

We have celebrated this healed-and-reconciled gathering of the Apostles many times as the founding of the Church. In very few words: the Church is born; the Bishops are gathered; the Holy Spirit is given; the Sacraments are bestowed; and the Church is sent into the world. "So I send you."

Yes, St. Luke represents this moment — the institution of the Apostles, the descent of the Holy Spirit, the renovation of the world — very differently in the Book of Acts. He paints a large and imposing icons, which we have named Pentecost. And he sets his subject, not behind locked doors as a mysterious communion among holy men and their God, but audaciously paints it on an enormous canvas, set on a great stage, overseeing a public square in Jerusalem. Painters ever after have not failed to notice this. I have posted such a painting with this reflection: the high stage, a colonnade of pillars, Peter declaiming, the Mother of God presiding, the Spirit descending ..... Very different from John's account.

But St. Luke the Evangelist is also the icon writer par excellence. And icons, which we have seen repeatedly, in St. Luke's Gospel are his special domain. And his Gospel comes alive through these mysterious windows into God's ineffable domain. Luke's Gospel is one of a kind.

It is this Apostolic College, the Twelve Apostles (minus one as of yet), which is, and will be, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church watching always in readiness for the Return of the King and rightly and duly ministering His Mysteries. Their first act would enshrine forever the Eucharist as their source, center, and highest summit. In peace and unity, they partake in the Most Pure Body and the Most Precious Blood of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He emphasizes the wounds. His Body and Blood are the central focus.

Note that there is no spirit of a blood sacrifice being offered here, no Sacrifice of the Mass, but only a spirit of profound participation in Heavenly Mysteries whose coherence is secured by unbreakable bonds of love and whose Center is Jesus, the Holy One, the Logos, and our Creator God. Can we imagine a union among them more profound than this one?

This is what St. John Chyrsostom and St. Cyril of Alexandria noticed about these few lines of Scripture, not the ridiculous finger-pointing of the "Doubting Thomas" discourse .... least of all, because it would not be invented for several centuries.

Back on earth, we have the very fallible disciples of Jesus now endowed with the Spirit of God. They have been imbued with the very stuff and essence of the Church. They are the Church, wrote the Apostolic Father St. Ignatius of Antioch in his Letter to the Smyrneans. And the Master, our Lord and God, has not forgotten His Twin, the stalwart and redoubtable Thomas, to be numbered as one of the pillars of His imperishable Church.

And the Twin, for his part, is contented, even fulfilled, to occupy the Master's erstwhile place: to be esteemed last, to be mocked by idlers in the public square, and, if he might be of service, to teach one of the greatest principles of Christianity, which is faith.

Will we give the One, Who has given us every gift, our faith, even our simple belief? Let us raise our voices in prayer to the Twin, who was foremost in belief yet forever after would be slighted as the Apostle of Doubt. St. Thomas, may we have a place with you in your perfect lowliness?

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.