Thomas’ request to see the wounds of the risen Jesus enables us both to understand that Jesus is truly God, but also that he still bears the scars of the Cross. As a wounded God he stands with all those who are wounded in the world today. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.
Readings for the Feast of St Thomas the Apostle can be found here.
One of the hardest jobs for an author, playwright or movie screenwriter must be knowing how to end their book, play or film. Do you draw all the strands together neatly, so that everyone lives happily ever after? Do you end with something dramatic and unexpected, to shock your reader or viewer? Or do you leave it open-ended, so that those reading or watching have to guess what happened next?
Today’s Gospel represents the ending of John’s Gospel. Yes, in our versions there is another chapter after this one, but most scholars think that was a later addition. This is the conclusion enviaged by the apostle John. The very last words spoken by someone other than Jesus are from Thomas, his wonderful declaration “My Lord and my God”, just after Jesus revealed his wounds, showing that he really had risen from the dead. Why does John end his Gospel this way? It is surely to bookend those famous words from the opening verse, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. In a literary master stroke, John is telling us what his Gospel is all about – the fact that the human being Jesus is none other than God himself. It is Thomas, and his famous moment of doubt, that made this possible.
Jesus’ encounter with Thomas tells us something important about the nature of the divinity revealed in Jesus. Thomas demands the see the wounds, and Jesus agrees. And so we see that the risen Lord is a wounded God, one who still bears the scars of the Cross even after the Resurrection. As a wounded God, he stands alongside all those who bear scars – the physical ones of illness, injury or disability, or the internal ones of doubt (like Thomas himself), failure or abuse. Today as we give thanks for Thomas on his feast day, let us rejoice that he helps to reveal to us who Jesus is – “my Lord and my God”, of course, but a Lord and God who loves and suffers alongside his children.
Mass today is in St Saviour’s at 10am.
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