Why Believe? A Quickie Rumination

     Among other things, July 3 is the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, he who at first doubted the Resurrection of Jesus:

     But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
     The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
     And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them, then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood ion their midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
     Then said he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.
     And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
     Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
     [The Gospel According To John, 20:24-29]

     As with the rest of the events narrated in the Gospels, there is no secular account of this encounter between Thomas and the risen Christ. Of course, it’s told to have happened in a closed, locked room. However, the reader should be mindful that all history of that time and place arises from religious scribes...and those of the non-Christian variety were biased against Christ and His New Covenant, just as the Gospelers were biased toward it.

     But that’s not all. Thomas, he who had to experience the Resurrected Christ personally to believe, was martyred for his faith:

     That Saint Thomas, after the dispersion of the Apostles, went to India, where he labored and died at Meliapour, is a certain fact of history. The Roman Breviary states that he preached in Ethiopia and Abyssinia, as well as in Persia and Media. Surely his was a remarkable history, reserved for the inhabitants of Christ's glory to see in its fullness some day.

     Before he died in Meliapour, he erected a very large cross and predicted to the people that when the sea would advance to the very foot of that cross, God would send them, from a far-distant land, white men who would preach to them the same doctrine he had taught them. This prophecy was verified when the Portuguese arrived in the region, and found that the ocean had advanced so far as to be truly at the foot of the cross. At the foot of this cross was a rock where Saint Thomas, while praying fervently, suffered his martyrdom by a blow from the lance of a pagan priest. This happened, according to the Roman Breviary, at Calamine, which is in fact Meliapour, for in the language of the people the word Calurmine means on the rock (mina). The name was given the site in memory of the Apostle's martyrdom.

     I’d say Thomas’s doubts were more than adequately dispelled, wouldn’t you?

     May God bless and keep you all...and all those who suffer martyrdom for their faith in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and Redeemer of Mankind.