Peace amid doubt

Good morning, happy Friday, and many blessings.

Somehow when I read today's Gospel, John 20: 24-29, I tell myself that as Christians we have our doubts and we have Jesus. We doubt our doubts and we believe Him. In other words, this is a story of the doubting disciples.

The doubting disciples are not just those locked up in that room that day. Who else do you know who is in lockdown? Who else do you know who doesn’t know what will happen? Who else do you know who has their doubts? Or rather, whose doubts have them? We don’t have to look very far to find doubting disciples, do we?

What changed things for those disciples? What changed things for Thomas? Did they have doubts? Yes. But they stopped believing their doubts. They heard the words of Jesus, “Peace be with you.” Instead of believing their doubts, they doubted their doubts. They believed Jesus. Were the religious leaders still there? Yes. Were they still out to get them? Yes. But Jesus had spoken His peace to them. And in speaking that word, “peace,” He gave them peace. God spoke the word, “let light be,” and there was light. God is almighty and His word is powerful. His word is not just words. His word always accomplishes what it says.

Jesus says to us, “peace be with you.” We hear these words, and we have peace. Not just generic peace, mere rest and quiet. But true peace, His peace. We have Jesus Himself. He appears us just as He appeared to those disciples on Easter Sunday, and ‪the next Sunday‬, and every Sunday after that. Do we know what shall happen tomorrow or tomorrow next? No. Do we still have doubts? Yes. But we need not believe our doubts. We believe Jesus. We do not know what tomorrow will bring, but we know what the Last Day will bring. We know that Christ was crucified, that He rose. And we know that He will come in glory to bring us into the fullness of His kingdom forever. We have Christ. We have His peace.

The barrier to faith for the disciples was fear and for Thomas Doubt. A word from Jesus overcame fear and doubt. But is good that Jesus deals with each person’s needs differently. He treats us as individuals: Mary simply needed to hear Jesus’ voice and her grief was healed; the disciples needed to receive the peace of Jesus into their lives to release them from their fear; Thomas needed to see the Risen Christ and his doubt was quenched. Each of us has different needs – we all ask different questions - but there is only one solution – a touch from Jesus. Are you ready?

Blessings

Fr. Luis+