Today is the Feast of St. Thomas, the Apostle, the best known “doubter” in history. I can relate to Thomas and his distrust, but I take comfort in the first words Jesus says when he enters the room where Doubting Thomas awaits: “Peace be with you.” Jesus doesn’t scold him or get angry but offers him peace. Then he offers him proof: “Put your finger here and see my hands and bring your hand and put it into my side.”
Jesus, who knows me in my humanity and understands me so intimately, offers me peace in the midst of my doubts and fears. I want to stop there. I want peace to be at the center of my life and my faith and not listen to the invitation beyond Jesus blessing me with peace. But at the very heart of Christianity is the crucifix. Our lives are filled with suffering and complicated by the fact that those we love suffer. Many days I don’t want to look at the suffering anymore or the crucifix. I just want to think of the love and the peace.
In today’s gospel we are not only offered peace but we are asked to go beyond that and to enter into the wounds of Jesus. He holds out his hands to us and asks us to put our finger into them, to put aside our own fears long enough to enter them and to understand that the suffering Jesus went through is what allows him to offer us peace.
The invitation from Jesus asks us to enter into the wounds of others. He wants us to do as he has done entering into the suffering and pain of others, and pay less attention to our own. Over and over in the gospels he looks to the poor and outcast, those on the fringes of society and those who are despised. They are people we read about in the newspaper and people who populate our own lives and families. We do not want to be a part of their suffering because they are difficult and complicated and He asks us to enter into their pain and carry our faith and his peace with us as we do it.
We were not in the upper room with Thomas and the others and did not see Jesus speak or touch his hands. To those of us who have followed the apostles, he sends encouragement. “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” It is a blessing for all of us who have doubted and feared and been reluctant to place our fingers into his nail hole. Despite our very human reactions, or because of it, we have believed anyway, and he blesses us with peace.
Maureen McCann Waldron
The most important part of my life is my family – Jim my husband of 47 years and our two children. Our daughter Katy, a banker here in Omaha, and her husband John, have three wonderful children: Charlotte, Daniel and Elizabeth Grace. Our son Jack and his wife, Ellie, have added to our joy with their sons, Peter and Joseph.
I think family life is an incredible way to find God, even in (or maybe I should say, especially in) the most frustrating or mundane moments.
I am a native of the East Coast after graduating in 1971 from Archbishop John Carroll High School in suburban Philadelphia. I graduated from Creighton University in 1975 with a degree in Journalism and spent most of the next 20 years in corporate public relations in Omaha. I returned to Creighton in the 1990s and completed a master’s degree in Christian Spirituality in 1998.
As our children were growing up, my favorite times were always family dinners at home when the four of us would talk about our days. But now that our kids are gone from home, my husband and I have rediscovered how nice it is to have a quiet dinner together. I also have a special place in my heart for family vacations when the kids were little and four of us were away from home together. It’s a joy to be with my growing family.
Writing a Daily Reflection is always a graced moment, because only with God’s help could I ever write one. I know my own life is hectic, disjointed and imperfect and I know most of us have lives like that. I usually write from that point of view and I always seem to find some sentence, some word in the readings that speaks right to me, in all of my imperfection. I hope that whatever I write is in some way supportive of others.
It’s an incredibly humbling experience to hear from someone who was touched by something I wrote. Whether the note is from someone across campus or across the world, it makes me realize how connected we are all in our longing to grow closer to God.
