CHAPTER I St. Thomas and the Apostles
SACRED SCRIPTURE has not passed down any information
concerning the origin, parents, or early life of St. Thomas. He was
the first one of the twelve to enter the Gospels practically
unnoticed, leader of the silent, almost mute apostles. The first seven
apostles had been mentioned before their calling, but St. Thomas'
name appears for the first time in the list of the apostles like a ray
of sun on the edge of a forest, which no one had noticed before.
The Synoptic Gospels (i.e., The Gospels of Matthew, Mark
and Luke), are silent about St. Thomas, save the mere mention of
his name along with that of other Apostles. Evangelists Mark and
Luke put St. Thomas in the eighth place of their list, and Evangelist
Matthew, in the seventh.
In the Canon of the masses, in the litany of the Saints, and in
the Acts of the Apostles, Thomas is portrayed as a specially
important witness to the Resurrection; he is placed before Philip,
Bartholomew and Matthew and not after them, as he is in the
Gospels. Though his apostolic companions stood on his right and
on his left, St. Thomas seemed to remain almost alone and
melancholic by nature.
St. John has, in his Gospel, made some marked references to
‘Thomas who is called Didymus (twin).’1 St. Thomas appears
actively in this Gospel immediately before the account of the
raising of Lazarus from the dead. Jesus had just fled from
Jerusalem to escape stoning and seizure by the Jews. He had gone
to Perea. The grieving sisters of Lazarus, Martha and Mary of
Bethany had sent a special messenger to Jesus to inform him that
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their brother lay very ill. Mysteriously enough, Jesus remained two
more days in the same place where he was. Then after that interval,
He said to his disciples, ‘Let us go back into Judea.’2 The disciples
were startled and confused because the Jews in Judaea were
threatening to stone Jesus. So the disciples tried to find a plausible
reason for Jesus not to fulfil his dangerous mission of mercy. They
dissuaded Jesus from undertaking this perilous journey. Thereupon
the forthright Thomas said: ‘Let us go too, and be killed along with
him.’3 This utterance, as hearty as it was sincere, came from
Thomas at a time when timidity still had its grip on the Apostles.
Later, at the Last Supper, when Jesus let His disciples know
that He was soon to leave them, it was the ardent follower of the
Master, again, who came out with ‘Lord, we do not know where
Thou art going; how are we to know the way there ?’4 Such a
misapprehension on the part of Thomas called forth the quick and
memorable reply from the Master: ‘I am the Way; I am Truth and
Life; nobody can come to the Father except through me. If you had
learned to recognize me, you would have learned to recognize my
Father too; from now onwards, you are to recognize Him; you have
seen Him.’5
Generations to come will be indebted to the doubting Thomas
for this illuminating glance into the eternal life in the Father and the
Son and into the Way, Christ Himself.
The origin of the phrase ‘doubting Thomas.’ is well known.
Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus, who
gloriously rose from the, dead, appeared to them. When the other
disciples told him ‘we have seen the Lord,’ he said to them, ‘Until
I have seen the mark of the nails on his hands; until I have put my
finger into the mark of the nails and put my hand into His side, You
will never make me believe.’6 Pain is the price of doubt and
uncertainty. No one could help him but Jesus Himself.
Jesus deigned to clear his doubt eight days later. Once more
the disciples were within and Thomas was with them and the doors
were locked. Jesus came and stood there in their midst. ‘Peace be
upon you,’ He said. It was really the risen Christ who alone could
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enter into closed rooms and closed souls. For Thomas’ sake, He had
returned to show Himself as the good shepherd who goes ‘after that
which is lost until he finds it.’7
Word for word the risen Saviour took up Thomas’ conditional
obstinacy. He said to Thomas ‘Let me have thy finger; see, here are
my hands. Let me have thy hand; put it into my side. Cease that
doubting and believe.’8
Endless seemed the sudden silence in the room. Never have
divine reality and human doubt been so closely face to face.
Thomas was to see and comprehend the glorious body of the risen
Christ, objectively. Falling to his knees, Thomas melted into the
memorably brief utterance, ‘Thou art my Lord and my God,’9 thus
confirming the divinity of Christ.
None of the other apostles had ever called the Lord ‘God’
with such significance. No apostle had ever confessed Him so
openly and fully to be Lord; not even Peter in Caesarea Philippi.
Even on Mount Tabor the privileged apostles had not so fully
comprehended the glimpse of the beatific vision. Ironically, it was
the doubting apostle’s Easter joy which turned out to be the
greatest.
Jesus appeared a few days later to the apostles on lake
Tiberias and Thomas was also with them. ‘Simon Peter was there,
and with him were Thomas, who is also called Didymus, and
Nathaniel, and the sons of Zebedee and two more of His
disciples.’10
Just before Jesus ascended to heaven He appeared, for the last
time, to all the eleven disciples (including Thomas) as they sat at
table. Then it was that Christ gave His epoch-making commission
to them: ‘Go out all over the world, and preach the Gospel to the
whole of creation; he who believes and is baptised will be saved;
he who refuses belief will be condemned. Where believers go, these
signs shall go with them; they will cast out devils in My name, they
will speak in tongues that are strange to them; they will take up
serpents in their hands, and drink poisonous draughts without harm;
they will lay their hands upon the sick and make them recover.’11
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From Mount Olivet, after seeing Jesus ‘lifted up.. and caught..
away from their sight’, the disciples went back to Jerusalem. In the
Acts of the Apostles we read: “Coming in, they went up into the
upper room where they dwelt, Peter and John, James and Andrew,
Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of
Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James. All
these, with one mind, gave themselves up to prayer, together with
Mary the mother of Jesus and the rest of the women and his
brethren.”12
When the day of Pentecost came round, while the disciples
were all gathered together in unity of purpose, there appeared ‘what
seemed to be tongues of fire, which parted and came to rest on each
of them; and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to
speak in strange languages, as the Spirit gave utterance to each..;
each man severally heard them speak in his own language. And
they were all beside themselves with astonishment’13.
Rubens has created a moving portrait of Thomas. A weary and
gentle countenance looks down on anyone who looks up to him.
His face is thin with pain. It is wrinkled from doubt and thought
and care. His eyes are tired from the many sleepless nights he spent
and the many tears he wept. But through all of this the joy of seeing
the risen Saviour appears. The way, once so dark and gloomy, was
again illuminated by the splendour of the glory and joy of his
returned Master. Then did his eternal goal become clear.
Filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, who alighted on the
Apostles in the shape of fiery tongues, the Apostles dispersed in
every direction to preach the ‘Good News’. Thomas, as tradition
has it, went eastwards to India.
