Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday 3rd July
Message from Fr Paul for Saturday, 3rd July 2021
As things begin slowly to relax and we have more people coming to the abbey to arrange baptisms and weddings or to visit a monk (up until now we have always met in the garden, even when it was raining), we occasionally use one of the large rooms available. However, this week it was a great joy to welcome back Abbot Nicholas of Downside, who was with us for a few days, living in his own room in the monastery. What a joy just to sit and chat with him, compare notes and think together about the future. We hope that after 19th July, some of the Downside monks can come and stay with the Belmont Community.
Today the Church celebrates the feast of St Thomas the Apostle, made famous by the episode related in John’s Gospel and for his fame as a missionary to the middle and far East and especially to India. Today’s Gospel passage from John, (Jn 20: 24-29), relates a story of doubt and belief, one that touches the hearts of all believers. Let us read what John tells us. “Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I 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.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:
‘You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’”
It would appear that on the evening of the day when Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared in the upper room to his disciples, of whom only ten were present. Judas Iscariot was dead by now and Thomas, for some unknown reason, was absent. From thereon we know the story well. “Unless I see, unless I touch, I refuse to believe.” Thomas wants proof. The very fact that he wants proof shows that he wants to believe, even if he’s saying that he refuses to believe simply on the word of his companions. The following week he is there when Jesus appears. This is the octave of Easter and the first day of the week is quickly becoming the Lord’s Day. Having greeted the disciples, “Peace be with you,” he speaks to Thomas and invites him to look closely and touch, but not only to touch but to put his fingers into the holes in his hands and his whole hand into the wound in his side. This goes much deeper than touch. “Doubt no longer but believe,” says Jesus, while Thomas exclaims, “My Lord and my God.” There is no clearer declaration of Christ’s divinity in the New Testament than on the lips of Thomas. Here is the very antithesis to doubt. “You believe because you can see” is Jesus’ reaction to Thomas’ profession of faith, but there are those who do not see and yet believe. They are especially blessed.
Jesus, my Lord and my God, strengthen and deepen my faith through the story of Thomas. May I doubt no longer, but believe. Amen.
