Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Bruno Santana, OHC
The Second Sunday of Easter, April 27, 2025
My Lord and My God !
“My Lord and my God” we are abide in You in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen
Most of you know by memory, some parables of Jesus, biblical verses, sayings from a prophet or disciple.
If you think of Saint Peter you will immediately remember his great confession: “You are the Christ, the son of the living God (Mt 16:16).
Saint Thomas also had a great confession: “My Lord and my God”, but you'll notice that Thomas's confession has never been spoken with great adulation in the church. In fact, I often think that poor Thomas has been maligned by every Preacher in the pulpit for his one moment of weakness of unbelief or disbelief.
We’ve called him “doubting Thomas” and I relegated him to the back of all the Saints.
The reality is that Thomas is very much like you and me. Someone that always is seeking, questioning and we as Church also seek and question.
He had a thousand questions. If we Look through the gospels, we will see that all the time he asked Jesus something. Look at the gospel of John 14:5 , Jesus said I'm going to the Father and Thomas asked "Lord, we do not know where you are going. So how can we know the way? So , He's always questioning, he's always seeking.
Let’s be fair to him and he is not the daunting Thomas, he is a great Apostle.
I will give you some examples through the gospels comparing with other biblical characters.
Look at Peter. He denied Jesus three times but we don't call him Peter, the great Denier.
In (John 1:46) Nathanael says, refer to Jesus: “Can anything good come from Nazareth? but we don't call Nathaniel the great scoffer.
Look at James and John (Matthew 20:20-23 and Mark 10:35-45). They asked Jesus to sit one on the right and the other one on the left in his glory and we don’t call James and John as the great opportunists in the gospel.
What about the rest of the disciples? They abandoned Jesus at gethsemane and we don't call them the great cowards.
And poor Thomas unfortunately, we labeled him as doubting Thomas.
Doubt wasn’t unique to Thomas and we will see in today’s gospel that we have 2 parts.
The first part, when Jesus comes, it is still Easter Sunday and the 10 disciples were there but Thomas wasn't.
The second part, 1 week later, is the second Sunday of Easter. Thomas was there. Is important to see that difference.
Today's gospel starts on verse 19. but before that, verse 18, Mary of Magdala goes to the disciples and says : "I have seen the Lord”. but they didn't believe her and Jesus said that he was going to rise.
In the first part of the gospel , the doors were locked for fear of the Jews. Jesus appears, says, “Peace be with you.” and show them his hands and his side. Why does he do this? Because Jesus knew they doubted.
The second part is 1 week later, the second Sunday of Easter. Thomas was there (from verse 25). The disciples said to him “We have seen the Lord.
So, it is fair, if Mary of Magdala saw the Lord. If the disciples saw the Lord. So Thomas needed to see the Lord too. And if we were there, we would want to see the Lord too and It's absolutely fine.
The verse 27 says: “Then he (Jesus) said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it on my side. Do not doubt but believe.”
I want to explain this phrase (Do not doubt but believe). If we look the original text in Greek (καὶ μὴ γίνου ἄπιστος ἀλλὰ πιστός) we will find the word ἄπιστος (apistos) and πιστός (pistos). Apistos means unbelieving , Pistos means believe. The best translation from the original text (from koine Greek) is “ Do not be unbelieving any more but believe). Doubt in Greek is διστάζω (distázō) that also appears in the Gospel in other biblical passages.
The meaning of the word believe (Pistos) in the gospel of Saint John it means abiding with Jesus, having a relationship with Jesus. We will find through the Gospel of Saint John when Jesus says these words: “you must abide in me.”
So when Jesus says to Thomas: “Do not be unbelieving any more but believe” What Jesus was really saying to Thomas is: believe in the relationship that we have, which has not died and not ended at the cross. Jesus was encouraging Thomas in his moments of weakness. This is love.
So this relationship between Jesus and Thomas now gets repaired. In other words, Jesus reminds him: I love you Thomas, I want to encourage you. Thomas feels the need to respond and opens his heart to Jesus and he says to him in faith (pistos), in belief, in love, in relationship: “My Lord and my God”. This is a great confession of faith. Thomas now is renewing that relationship with Jesus.
These are such loaded words. “ My lord and my God”. “MY” (he says) indicates a relationship, abiding. The response of Thomas in other words is: “Jesus, I love you”.
My brothers and My sisters. There is a Thomas in all of us and I know that you, me, we all have moments of weakness, lack of faith, sins and I understand all of that.
Today Jesus says to you, to me, to us: don't judge yourself by that one moment of weakness that you have. Judge yourself by my great love for you. Mary, John, Peter, Joseph, Joshua, Sean, whatever your name is, Judge yourself by my great love for you. That even in our moments of weakness, I encourage you. I love you.
When we receive the love of Jesus, like Thomas, we also respond: my Lord and my God. It's a confession of a relationship.
These words give us strength in moments of unbelief and God is always stretching out his hand of love to us.
To conclude , let's have a minute of silence and think about those moments of your own feelings, your own doubts, your own sinfulness and in your heart join me prayerfully silently saying “my Lord and my God”. Amen.
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