Thomas gives us excellent hindsight
7th May 2012 · 0 Comments
By Fr. Jerome LeDoux
Contributing Writer
Although we ask numerous important questions every day throughout our lives, ultimately we have but the one overriding question, “What will happen to me when I die? What will happen to my mother, my father, my siblings, my spouse, my children, my family and extended family, my friends, acquaintances and people around the globe?”
The only person capable of answering this question must have already answered it in his own life and personal experience. Quite literally, he must have proven that he can bridge the near impossible gulf between life, death and life after death. After watching all things grow weak, die and putrefy, such a bridge seems grossly impossible to us humans.
So it is hardly a wonder that the apostles of Jesus had so many doubts about Jesus himself, despite his spectacular credentials on full display through his numerous miracles on the waters and in the face of storms, as well as his countless cures and healings.
Poor Jesus! After having been in the closest company of his boys for three years, he was rejected, suffered the ultimate humiliation of crucifixion and was buried in a borrowed tomb hewn out of a large facing of rock. As promised, he defied all the laws of Mother Nature by raising his body from the grave through the power of his Father.
Lying “witnesses”—sleeping soldiers, no less, who somehow saw while asleep—swore that followers of Jesus had come and stolen his body while they were asleep.
Repeatedly, Jesus appeared to his disciples in his glorified body that could pass through locked doors or any impediment. Each time, his boys were frozen with fear and petrified by the thought that they were seeing a ghost. Obviously, they believed in ghosts.
Each time, Jesus calmed them by showing them the holes in his hands, feet and side. Then, requesting fish, he ate it right in front of them to prove that he was much more than some see-through ethereal being without any bodily substance at all. Doubting Thomas was made the whipping boy, but all of them were riddled by doubt and fear.
Thomas gives us some breathing room concerning a concept that the Jews did not have of themselves, as witnessed by its absence in all the Old Testament. That awesome concept—resurrection—came out of Egypt, Northeast Africa, where the Pharaohs were specially prepared for their future life and laid in their elaborate pyramid tombs.
As the Athenians in Acts 17:32 and as all Jews, Thomas and his fellow apostles had problems with the very concept of resurrection. Against such headwinds, Jesus asks in Luke 24:36, “Why are you alarmed? And why are these doubts coming up in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet, and see that it is I myself. Feel me, and you will know, for a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you can see I have.”
Proverbially, hindsight is 20-20. However, in the case of the resurrection of the body vis-à-vis the apostles – Thomas in particular – and the other disciples, we enjoy the benefit of their mistakes, the wrestling match between their faith and doubts, their mental and emotional challenges to something we deeply desire but find very hard to grasp.
When Jesus hung expiring on the dreaded cross, Matthew 27:51-53 reports, “And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming forth from their tombs after Jesus’ resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many.”
Even though this extraordinary account is read yearly during Holy Week, its stark reality has escaped the notice and awareness of a surprising number of people in their twenties, sixties, eighties and beyond. Some things seem too otherworldly to believe.
So astounding is this Scripture passage that, upon hearing this reading apart by itself, I have heard some people say in Bible study, “No, that is not in the Bible!”
Yes, it’s a tough sell, folks. Yet, the early Christians who were witnesses to this, or who spoke to companions who witnessed it, made sure that the account was included in the Sacred Scriptures. Besides, it is no tougher sell than the idea of resurrection itself.
More than anything else in life, we anticipate our own and the resurrection of all our dear ones prior to the joyful rejoining of our body and soul in our Father’s kingdom.
This article was originally published in the May 7, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
