Sermon for the Feast of St. Thomas (transf.)
“My Lord, and my God”
The questions of the Advent season of questions culminate, it seems to me, in The Feast of St. Thomas, the Advent Saint par excellence. His feast falls, appropriately enough, about the time of the winter solstice, the darkest time of nature’s year, and yet heralds the coming of the Light of God in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. St. Thomas is an especially important part of the Advent preparations for Christmas.
And yet, there is a paradox. Rather than the intensity of explicit questions, such as the barrage of questions belonging to Sunday’s Gospel (Advent IV), known as the witness of John, meaning John the Baptist, with the heightened sense of wonder of the question, “who art thou?” which turn us to Christ, with The Feast of St. Thomas we are given a wonderful statement of faith which illumines the entire mystery of the Incarnation. “My Lord, and my God,” Thomas proclaims in the presence of the risen Christ behind the closed doors of the Upper Room in Jerusalem, eight days after the Resurrection. How does this story relate to Advent?
Because it illumines the radical nature of redemption which lies at the heart of Christ’s Nativity and to the deeper meaning of the Advent. Because it is the answer to the implicit question of Thomas which goes to the heart of the Christian faith. Because it challenges us all about our personal relation to God in Jesus Christ.
One of the darknesses of our world and day is the darkness of doubt and uncertainty about, well, almost everything, but certainly about God and religion. Thomas is traditionally known as doubting Thomas because of this Gospel scene. “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” He is not prepared to take on faith – on the authority of the other disciples – the news of the Risen Christ who had appeared to them. His eloquent though conditional sentence is a question about the reality of the Incarnate Christ and the truth of the Resurrection. He seems to be saying, ‘I will not believe unless I see and touch with mine own eyes, fingers and hands.’ He speaks to a kind of empirical necessity.