Questioning Thomas

The image to the right is a crucifix on the mount of Saint Thomas, whose feast day is today, December 21st. The crucifix is located near where Thomas was martyred, in the town of Madras, on the coast of the Indian Ocean, in India.

There was a Christian community in that part of India long before the Europeans came to India. And they testify that it was Thomas himself who first brought the Good News to them, and was martyred there. Well, someone brought them the Gospel. And as early as the 2nd century, there was a Western tradition that Thomas had traveled as far as India. So, I believe this.

That’s one reason that “Doubting Thomas” should really be called “Questioning Thomas.” A 1st century Jews living in Palestine could not have exactly been paralyzed by doubt and wandered as far away from home as the Indian Ocean coastline. Thomas certainly was a questioner:

Jesus said, “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” “No, we don't know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:3-6).

Thomas asked the hard questions. Jesus responds, but not by directly answering his question (Note that Jesus doesn’t say where He is going). He invites Thomas to join Him on the way. And that way is a way of questions and answers, which lead to more questions and more answers. Thomas continued on that Way, to a place where he surely entertained questions from a Hindu culture that he could never have anticipated. But truly, the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to the apostles gave him the answers he needed.

Pray for us, Thomas, that we may ask, and entertain the questions that lead us to the right answers, not all at once, but on the True Way.