Daily Gospel Reflection for July 3, 2018

Today's Gospel: John 20:24-29 - Feast of St. Thomas Oh, St. Thomas. Is there a more relatable saint the jaded, modern mind? Thomas can’t say that he’s going to follow Jesus without assuming the worst — that it’ll cost him his life (John 11: 16). When Jesus tells His apostles that He’s going to prepare a place for them, and that they already know the way to get there, who comes blurting in with earthbound sensibility? Good old Thomas (John 14: 5). So when Jesus is captured and crucified, of course Thomas flees. Even after having seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, Thomas still can’t let go of his, “yeah, right” attitude. What other reaction would you expect him to have at the rumor that Jesus died but rose again on the third day? I often wonder what life wounds Thomas experienced that let him, like so many of us, to become jaded, so closed to the possibility of the wonderful. Is that why Jesus called him? Jesus knows, in Thomas and in us, when our wounds have become callouses. Jesus knows how afraid we are to trust. And then, of course, He knows just when to show us His own wounds, still tender and open, so that we can believe that the wonderful even happens to the most wounded of us all. Jesus is never afraid of our unbelief. He walks with us in it. He confronts it. And if we’ve learned our lesson, we, too, cry out, “My Lord and my God!”