2nd Sunday of Easter
In these weeks following Easter, the scriptures recount the many appearances of Jesus to his disciples after his death and resurrection. The appearances have no consistency. For example, in some instances the disciples recognise Jesus at once. In others Jesus shouts question to the disciples from the lake shore before reality dawns. In some of the appearances, he walks through closed doors, unhindered by the barriers of our material world. Yet another instances, like in last today's gospel reading, Jesus stresses his physical and human characteristics in his encounter with the doubting Thomas: "Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."
The figure of the doubting Thomas represents mankind in today's world. As is the case in our own day, Thomas sets impossible conditions for belief: "Unless I see in his hands the wounds of the nails, and put my finger into the holes they have made, then I refuse to believe." Thomas is the torchbearer of the scientific age: unless I can see it myself and have irrefutable physical evidence for it, I will not believe. Now I am not for a moment blaming scientists for this scepticism; nor am I dismissing them as godless infidels. They are simply following the essential rules of their own disciplines. In fact traditional Catholicism has been more obsessed with certainty than science ever was. Many good Catholics regard doubt as the enemy of faith. But doubt can be a true servant of faith, refining it, maturing it and purifying it through honest questioning. In fact it is only through such questioning that we can come to a mature understanding of our faith. The doubting Thomas can be a friend rather than an enemy.
However, in our own day the scepticism of Thomas is no longer the peculiar quirk of one eccentric individual; it is the hallmark of us all. Science is now the most revered discipline of all disciplines in our day. Not only is it centre stage; it has taken over the whole stage. This is a pragmatic age; we live in a pragmatic world. And in a pragmatic world, the important question is now whether a reality is true, but whether it works. 'Does it work?' is the central question of our age. In a pragmatic society, science alone is given the right to establish facts. Its findings are considered objective. What is proposed by other disciplines with a different method of knowing- like theology, philosophy, mysticism, poetry, or art- truths established through these disciplines are deemed to be purely subjective, a matter of personal faith. The Canadian writer Ronald Rolheiser has given this lovely example of our 'blind faith' in science. No one, scientist or layman, has ever seen an atom. Yet none of us doubts its existence. Science not only assures us that atoms exist, it manipulates them to create nuclear energy. Who can doubt their existence? Likewise, no one, professional mystic or lay person, has ever seen God. Yet we doubt God's existence--despite the fact that mystics assure us of His reality and we see in the lives of believers (not to mention Christ, Buddha, and Mohammed) concrete evidence that they are experiencing something real in what they call an experience of God. They, too, like the scientists, are splitting atoms that release energy. But in a pragmatic, technological society, we see and understand only one kind of energy- practical. In this pragmatic culture, it is difficult enough for faith in the risen Christ to prosper. This is the age of Thomas.
Whereas scientific data addresses our reason, the rational side of us, faith has a wider scope: it speaks to our imagination. Consequently, we believe that the wounds of Christ are to be seen on every one who suffers or is rejected in any way. Yet, like Thomas, we need someone to highlight those wounds and to reveal the person concealed behind them. It is the function of the Church to reveal to mankind the God who is hidden under so many disguises.