Totus Tuus, Maria! Welcome everyone to our Feast Dasma Bible Study Online Version 2.

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Apologetics Series!

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Opening prayer:

Topic for discussion: “Jesus Appears to Thomas!”

Gospel Reading: John 20:24-29 (NABRE)

Thomas. 24 Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So
the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of
the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not
believe.” 26 Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came,
although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he
said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” 28 [a]Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my
God!” 29 [b]Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are
those who have not seen and have believed.”

John 20:24 – Gk. Didymus – Twin, St. Thomas doesn’t get a real name in the Bible. What was
translated as Thomas is actually an Aramaic word: “teo ma” which means “twin.” He was called as
such because he had a twin sister who died at a young age. But the bible never mentions his twin.

Gospel Background:
Today is the Feast of Saint Thomas and the Gospel speaks to us about the encounter of Jesus with
Thomas, the apostle who wanted to see in order to believe. For this reason, many call him Thomas the
incredulous or the unbelieving. In reality the message of this Gospel is very diverse. It is much more
profound and actual.

Chronologically, Thomas was the eighth apostle, and he was called by Philip. His story is one of the
most well-known accounts in the New Testament, and he even earned the nickname “Doubting
Thomas.” The name “Thomas” is of Aramaic origin and is known to mean “twin.” It wasn’t revealed
what exactly caused his doubt, maybe because Thomas, like everyone else, des not believe that a dead
man could still come back to life. But I often wonder why the Apostle Thomas doubted when the
disciples told him that they had seen the Risen Jesus. Did he doubt the Resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Was it because he wanted to make sure that his friends didn’t see just a ghost or an evil spirit, or did he
fear that his friends were just pulling a prank on him?

If he had already started to doubt the authenticity of Jesus being the Messiah, he would not have
remained in the company of the other Apostles. When he was finally with the group and Jesus appeared
to them, upon recognizing Him, he said straight away his famous proclamation, “My Lord and My
God! (John 20:28)”
In the world today, there are all different kind of reasons for atheists, agnostics, and members of other
religions like Islam and Buddhism to get convinced that Jesus is the Son of God, the Second Person of
the Most Holy Trinity, and for members of Christian sects and other denominations to accept that the
Pope is the successor of Saint Peter the Apostle, and that the Catholic Church is the Universal Church.
Still, they won’t believe because nothing and no one can really convince them. They have all the
temporal things and human achievements to prove that God is the Catholic God, but their will is
already against Jesus Christ; it’s fixed, and for the majority of them, it won’t change.

But this was not the case for Doubting Thomas. In essence, he said, ‘It’s really You, My Lord and My
God!’ His reaction showed that he did love Jesus. Thomas initially doubted the disciples’ claim that
they had seen Jesus after His Resurrection, but he did not doubt the fact of the Resurrection itself.
In other words, he did not doubt that Jesus had actually risen from the dead, but he was skeptical of
the disciples’ testimony that they had seen Him. He probably doubted whether the Messiah he loved
would indeed appear to them. It was only after he had physical proof of Jesus’ wounds that he believed
that it was really Jesus they had seen.

That’s why the story of Thomas is unique in the Bible. He was already a follower of Jesus but
demanded physical and tangible proof that the other disciples had seen Jesus. “Unless I see the mark
of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not
believe.” ~ John 20:25

Most often, Doubting Thomas is misinterpreted as him lacking faith of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But nothing is further from the truth. He is not a person having a story of doubting God and lacking or
losing faith like the other biblical figures in the Old Testament. Jesus, however, said to Thomas, “Have
you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have
believed. (John 20:29)” The Lord did not say, ‘Thomas, you are lacking faith in Who I Am!’

Personally, in my own opinion, to doubt is something good, depending ofcourse on the circumstances
at hand. Doubting acts as a protective mechanism. Can I fly? I doubt it. Am I qualified to do surgery?
I doubt it. Do I really have the answer to someone's problems? Maybe not. Do I know everything, even
though I sometimes think I do? Magkaka buhok pa ba ako? For me it's good to have doubt, and
question one's perceptions, but only to some extent and valid reason.

On the other hand, there are times doubting stops us from realizing our dreams, our ability & capacity,
our talents, it stops us from realizing God’s purpose in our lives. We stop doing good things because we
have the fear of failure. “Ay hindi ko kaya yan gawin!” “Wala akong talent eh!” Because of doubt, we
limit our self in what we are capable or not capable of doing! “When you doubt your power, you give
power to your doubt.” ~ Honore de Balzac

There’s nowhere else in the Bible does a person of God demand proof of a promise of God, and there is
no direct parallel to the story of Thomas anywhere else in the Bible. We called Thomas a “doubter,”
but that’s just us, because in John 11:16, it described Thomas as a follower who was willing to follow
Jesus, without a single doubt in his heart, even unto death. “So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his
fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

Reflection:
• John 20:24-25 - The doubt of Thomas.
Thomas, one of the twelve was not present when Jesus appeared to the disciples the week before. He
did not believe in the witness of the others who said: “We have seen the Lord!” But he gives some
conditions: “Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into
the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe”. Thomas is
very demanding. In order to believe he wants to see!

He does not want a miracle in order to believe. No! He wants to see the signs on the hands, on the
feet and on the side! He does not believe in the glorious Jesus, separated from the human Jesus who
suffered on the Cross. When John writes, at the end of the first century, there were some persons who
did not accept the coming of the Son of God in the flesh (2 Jn 7; 1 Jn 4: 2-3). Sino ba ang mga doubters
during the early days of Christianity? They were the Gnostics who despised matter and the body, and
there are still people today who cannot accept that God can become human, for the most important and
most wonderful reason of all, to save us! And this is the reason why St. John included this event in his
gospel and presents this concern of St. Thomas, to criticize the Gnostic’s belief that; “To see is to
believe.” The doubt of Thomas also makes us see the difficulty of believing in the Resurrection!
Is it a sin to doubt?
In Romans 16:26, Saint Paul speaks of our moral obligation to practice “obedience of faith.” In
the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we are reminded that “the first commandment requires us to
nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to
it.” (CCC 2088) The Catechism goes on to explain the difference
between voluntary and involuntary doubt about the faith, as well as incredulity, explaining that these
are three specific ways of sinning against the faith.

Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the
Church proposes for belief.

Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with
the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual
blindness.

Incredulity(the unwillingness or unable to believe something) is the neglect of revealed truth or the
willful refusal to assent to it. “Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must
be believed with divine and Catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same;
apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman
Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.” - Catechism of the Catholic
Church 2088-2089

• John 20: 26-27 - Do not be unbelieving but believe.

The text says “six days later.” That means that Thomas could maintain his opinion during a whole
week against the witness of the other Apostles. He was that stubborn! Thank God, for us! And so, six
days later, during the community meeting, they once again had the profound experience of the presence
of the risen Lord in their midst. The closed doors could not prevent the presence of Jesus in the midst
of those who believe in him.

Today, it is also like this. When we are meeting, even when we are meeting with the doors closed,
Jesus is in our midst. And up until today, the first word of Jesus is and will always be: “Peace be with
you!” What impresses is the kindness of our Lord. He does not criticize, nor does He judge the unbelief
of Thomas, but He accepts the challenge and says: “Thomas, put your finger in the hole of my
hands!”
Kapatid, when everything else is falling apart in your life, when life seems to be pressing you down to
rock bottom, when our prayers remain unanswered, or our suffering becomes unbearable, we might
question whether God is truly listening or present with us in our pain. We might even doubt His
promise that He listens to all our prayers and is with us in every moment of our suffering. However, we
must not doubt the existence of God Himself, and we acknowledge that He is all-powerful, which is
why we approach Him without fear in prayer. We can ask the Lord "why?" but do not sin! Do not
blame or curse God!

Pope Francis said to the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his March 20 Angelus address: “We
must be careful: When evil oppresses us, we risk losing our clarity and, to find an easy answer to
what we are unable to explain, we end up putting the blame on God,” And so often the very bad
habit of using profanities comes from this.” Let us always be reminded, that in our sufferings, the
Lord is there with us!

Pope Francis, even added, "When bad things happen to us, we should not blame God. Jesus tells us
“we need to look inside ourselves, it is sin that produces death; our selfishness can tear apart
relationships; our wrong and violent choices can unleash evil.” Even our words can hurt and
sometimes kill people, and they cannot be undone because what’s been said, is already spoken!

Jesus confirms the conviction of Thomas and of the communities, that is, the glorious Risen One is
the tortured crucified One! The Jesus who is in the community is not a glorious Jesus who has
nothing in common with our life. He is the same Jesus who lived on this earth and on His body He
has the signs of His Passion. The signs of the Passion are found today in the sufferings of people, in
hunger, in the signs of torture, of injustice, of inequality, and of sin! And Jesus becomes present in our
midst in the persons who react, who struggle for life and who do not allow themselves to be
disheartened. Thomas believes in this Christ and so do we!

"Thomas was not the only one who struggled to believe. But unlike his fellow Apostles, who closed
themselves inside the Upper Room, Thomas "Showed he was courageous," he "went out, running the
risk that someone might recognize, report, or arrest him." - Pope Francis in his reflection during the
Divine Mercy Sunday, 16 Apr. 2023, Vatican

Because of his doubts, he was forced to go to the Upper Room (the unborn Church), to be with the
others and wait for next apparition of the Lord. Pope Francis insisted on the need to remain within
the Church in order to find Jesus, while calling on the faithful to open our arms to all those who are
wounded by life, excluding no one from God’s mercy.

• John 20: 28-29 - Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.
Together with St. Thomas we say: “My Lord and my God!” This gift of Thomas is the ideal
attitude of faith. And Jesus completes with a final message: “You believe because you can see me.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe!” With this phrase, Jesus declares blessed all
of us who find ourselves in the same condition: without having seen, we believe that Jesus, who is
in our midst, is the same One who died crucified!

• The Lamsa bible, used by the INC, uses the same translated word spoken by St. Thomas in verse 28,
“My Lord and my God!”

• The mandate: “As the Father sent me so I am sending you!”

From this Jesus, who was crucified and rose from the dead, we receive the mission, the same one which
he has received from the Father (Jn. 20:21). Here, in the second apparition, Jesus repeats: “Peace be
with you!” This repetition stresses the importance of Peace.

To construct peace forms part of the mission. Peace means much more than the absence of war. It
means to construct a harmonious human living together in which persons can be themselves, having
everything necessary to live, living happily together in peace. This was the mission of Jesus and also
our own mission. Jesus breathed and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn. 20:22). And with the help of
the Holy Spirit we will be capable to fulfil the mission which He has entrusted to us.

In it’s proper context, if we go back to verses 19 to 23, we see Jesus communicates the power to
forgive sins: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are
retained!” The central point of the mission of peace is reconciliation, in the effort of trying to
overcome barriers which separate us. This power of reconciling and of forgiving is given to the
community (Jn. 20: 23); Mt. 18:18 – the power of binding and loosing).

In the Gospel of Matthew, this power is also given to Peter (Mt. 16:19 – Jesus gave Peter the keys to
the kingdom of heaven, to bind and to loose. The keys to the kingdom of heaven: the image of the keys
is probably drawn from Is 22:15–25 where Eliakim, who succeeds Shebna as master of the palace, is
given “the key of the House of David,” which he authoritatively “opens” and “shuts” (Is 22:22).

If you read carefully, you will notice that in verse 19 the promise of the keys is given to Peter alone.
However, in Mt 18:18 all the disciples are given the power of binding and loosing, but the context of
that verse suggests that there the power of excommunication alone is intended. And so, the keys are
those to the kingdom of heaven and that Peter’s exercise of authority in the church on earth will be
confirmed in heaven, show an intimate connection between, but not an identification of, the church and
the kingdom of heaven.

Here we can perceive in verses 19 to 23, that a community without pardon and without
reconciliation is not a Christian community. In one word, our mission is that of “forming
community” according to the example of the community of the Father, of the Son and the Holy
Spirit, and to make everyone in that community, a disciple of Jesus, ready to go in all the corners of the
world!