Show Me!

We don’t know the day-to-day occupation of Thomas the apostle.  He asked a lot of questions. His may have been the first-century equivalent of a scientific mind: He’s looking for evidence. He wants to be shown. He is not content to take the word of the others. He wants to see. He wants to understand. 

The beautiful thing about this story is Jesus’ divine mercy. He doesn’t condemn Thomas’s request. He offers to show him his hands and his side. He respects the intellectual grasping of the “scientist.”  Yet commentary after commentary deprecates Thomas’ questions,  even though Jesus did not. “Just believe on the apostles’ word,” they interpret as today’s message. They must not live in the same world that I live in. 

You can tell your scientifically-minded sixteen-year-old, “Just believe that God loves you” until you are blue in the face. She is not going to believe it on your word. She wants to see. Yet we have not seen God. With our limited minds, we cannot comprehend the Trinity; both St. Augustine and history’s agnostics agree on that. The  difference between a Christian and an agnostic, then, is revelation— we believe that by the mercy of God, we have been shown. The Lord has breathed on us and because of that, we have seen his glory.

When I teach my undergraduate prayer class at Notre Dame, I  get a mix of believers and non-believers. Early in the course, I offer  them what I call The Atheist’s Prayer: “God, if you’re real, show  me.” I cannot harangue them into belief. If God is real and they keep praying, they will be shown. I have seen it happen. God comes, not because we pray, but out of a deep desire to be with us. In every generation, age and after age, God shows up. 

Consider/Discuss 

• Faith is a gift that we have been given. We have been shown. We have responded, but it was first a gift given. On this Divine Mercy Sunday, how can we have greater mercy for those who may not believe based on our word? What is one concrete thing that we can do to strengthen or mend a relationship with a family member who is far from faith? 
• In today’s story from the Acts of the Apostles, the early community  “showed” the risen Lord by the way that they lived their lives. How can we build a faith community that is so loving that others are attracted?  Together, how can we reveal that following Jesus is worth living for? 

Living and Praying with the Word 

Lord Jesus, thank you for offering to show your hands and your  side to the apostle Thomas. As a result of your mercy, he came to  faith and declared you “Lord and God.” Bless all those we know  with scientific minds, especially those who do not now believe in  you. Reveal yourself to them and show them that following you is  the greatest adventure that they could ever undertake. For you are  alive! You are here, now. Alleluia! Alleluia!