Holy Spirit help me not doubt but believe…

Gospel Mystery of the Day              Thursday, April 20, 2023
                                                       
 Good Morning!      
Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
 
John 20:19-31

 
Jesus was not just one in a long line of people through the ages whose bodies have been resuscitated from death to resume their earthly existence.  Rather, Jesus was the first, and the only, Son of God who was the Son of Mankind, to rise himself, through no other agency, from a brutal death to bring about new and abundant life for all of humanity, free from the darkness of sin. The Death and Resurrection of Jesus is so pivotal in human history that it was immediately life-changing not only for the first Apostles but also for the thousands of people in the first century A.D. They like “Doubting Thomas”  were soundly converted from doubt to belief by an encounter with the risen Christ themselves, either in person before the Ascension, or after Pentecost through the touch of the Holy Spirit of Jesus. Thomas the Apostle after rising from his knees before his risen Master in the Upper Room, went on in his life to become a missionary to India. There he spent 72 years, until he was martyred while praying, building the seven churches and numerous communities of Christians that still bear witness to his faithfulness to Jesus. Does the Resurrection of Christ Jesus similarly impact my life’s words and deeds? Will my life, as a believer in the saving grace of the death and resurrection of Jesus, similarly bear the marks of my commitment to my faith in Christ? Holy Spirit, help me not doubt but believe.
 
The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.   (Psalm 118:14) 
 
Jesus’ death is of another kind: it is occasioned, not by the presumption of men, but by the humility of God. It is not the inevitable consequence of a false hubris, but the fulfillment of a love in which God himself comes down to us, so as to draw us back up to himself…
Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Holy Week
 
For a short biography of St. Thomas the Apostle, see
 https://www.stapostle.org/st-thomas-church-parish-history/saint-thomas-biography/
 
A Happy and a Blessed Easter Season to you and your family! 
Much Grace, Peace and Joy be with you!
 
 
Soli ad gloriam Dei
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