Doubting Thomas or Thomas the Believer?

‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’ is a phrase that usually denotes scepticism. Yet I can’t help feeling, after reading the post-resurrection Gospel passage, that Thomas is not so much sceptical but wants to believe in Jesus’ resurrection. The trouble is he needs to see it in order to believe.

St Paul tells us, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, that no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he or she is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

So, the work of the Holy Spirit is to create faith in Jesus. Intellectually, St Thomas was unable to accept that Jesus had risen from the dead. He could neither receive nor comprehend this truth. But the Spirit — breaking down the barrier of unbelief in Thomas’s mind — gave him the spiritual understanding to truly see the Lord, and to profess his faith in Jesus as Lord and God.

The Greek word used by St John for ‘to see’ gives us a sense of spiritual understanding which is beyond intellectual understanding.

To create faith, the Holy Spirit works in a mind that is searching for truth and is willing to accept it and submit to it. But the Spirit also uses the witness of the believing community to create faith. The faith of the disciples had a powerful influence on Thomas, inclining him to believe. His coming to faith, therefore, was something that took place within the newly born Church.

The Holy Spirit, working through the disciples’ witness to the resurrection, and through Thomas’s desire for truth, created a living faith in that once-doubting disciple. As people saw the faith of the early Church and the radical changes that this faith brought about in them, they were inclined to believe its message.

The Spirit led many of them into living faith. When a body of believers truly believes, others also will be brought to faith through their witness.

When Thomas, sometimes known as Doubting Thomas utters those words ‘My Lord and my God’ he doubts no more. In fact, in the Eastern Orthodox churches he is known as ‘Thomas the Believer’.

And we live in hope that our faith will grow stronger as we learn to recognize the presence of the risen Lord in the world. As with the apostle Thomas, it is through our doubt that we will gain our faith. And not always, but every so often we will catch a glimpse of God that takes our breath away.

Your friend and Rector

Matthew Tregenza