Thomas is at centre of our Gospel today. After the death of Jesus he fled from the company of the other apostles. Thus he misses the first appearance of the risen Lord. However he was there for the next appearance. It is interesting to see how Jesus dealt with him. The first thing he did was to show him his own wounds. Jesus felt no need to hide his wounds for they were proof of his love. They were the mortal wounds of the Good Shepherd suffered in defence of his flock from the wolf. He invited Thomas to touch those wounds.
But in truth, Thomas was the wounded one. He was wounded by grief, loneliness, doubt, and despair. In his pain he wanted to be alone. Even though his wounds were invisible, they were very real. But Jesus was able to see them . It was he who touched Thomas’s wounds and so made him whole and well again. It was by touching and being touched that Thomas was healed of his unbelief as well as his other wounds.
It is by showing our wounds, by touching and by being touched that we are healed. The human heart is healed only by the presence of another human being who understands human pain.
The world today is full of Doubting Thomas’s. They will not come to believe unless they can touch Jesus’s wounds and see the radiance of his face. This can happen only if he is seen to be alive in his followers. In the incident in today’s Gospel we see the birth of Easter faith in Thomas. We see that we encounter Christ not with our eyes but through faith. We know that everything that happens to us, even our wounds, can be part of a way to new life . We know that we can always receive Christ’s forgiveness and begin again.
When Jesus said “Blessed are they who have not seen but have believed” we know that we are graced by Him.