In Sunday’s gospel reading, we meet Thomas, the ultimate sceptic, the ultimate doubter, the man who won’t accept anybody else’s evidence but wants to see and touch and experience for himself.  All he had to go on was the testimony of his friends, and however much he may have trusted them he needed to see for himself. And when he sees Jesus for himself he recognises his friend and makes the leap of faith which has become the hallmark of the Christian faith: “My Lord and my God.” This is the climax of the whole of St. John’s gospel: Jesus’ true identity is acknowledged, where once there was doubt.

Thomas is a model for us all. We need doubters. It’s right and natural and good to doubt and ask questions. But we must remember that our faith is not about a set of beliefs which can moved by evidence, but an encounter with a living human being, Jesus of Nazareth who is the Son of God, in whom we come face to face with God and so have access to eternal life. True faith is not, and never can be, dependent on physical proof; faith is a relationship, not a scientific fact, just as the love between a husband and wife or a parent and child could never be scientifically ‘proved’, but is nonetheless real to those who love and are loved.

It is only through taking an initial step of faith  that we  discover the life-giving reality of God’s love for us. And like a marriage, once we have made that initial step of faith, we need to go on working at it. We don’t always know where our relationship with God will lead, but we trust that God will always care for us and have our very best interest at heart.

So I pray that we will always have the courage to doubt, the courage to ask questions of God, that we may grow in our relationship with him and to trust as Thomas did, so that we too can make that statement of faith before Christ, saying, “My Lord and my God.”

Fr. David