2nd Sunday of Easter (Fr. Simham)
DOUBTING THOMAS
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday. We are asked to preach about the “Trust in the great and infinite mercy of the Lord.” And the gospel today is about ‘doubting Thomas.’ Thomas cuts a sorry figure by doubting the resurrection of the Lord. He wants to touch and see to believe the resurrection. Trust and doubt both are two opposites. They don’t go together. Do they?
Often not. But they do go together. When? When the doubt takes you away it is trust in his mercy that brings you back.
Often we doubt the doubt? We do not have a good opinion about doubt. When we call some one “doubting Thomas” it is not a good compliment. We despise those who doubt and don’t believe. But heart of hearts we all know that we too had doubts of our own in life. Specially when the things were not going the way we want then to. Christian life is often a battle between doubt and faith. In fact it the doubt that helps to take that leap in faith.
When Jesus says “Happy are those who do not see and yet believe?” I am sure he is not encouraging a kind of ‘blind faith’ but a mutual trust in each other. Because blind faith leads you nowhere. A blind man cannot lead another blind. They both end up in a ditch. Jesus was saying ‘believe the words of other witnesses.’ You cannot personally see everything to believe. I believe that there are ‘penguins’ in Antarctica not because I went there to see but I believe others who told us that they saw them. So also is this.
I personally believe what Galileo said : “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” St. Augustine defined Theology as “Faith seeking understanding”. So there is nothing wrong when the ‘faith seeks understanding’ to make that leap of faith.
But here we need to be careful. Doubt is of two types.
1. Unbelief, disbelief, rejection, denial, agnosticism, faithlessness.
a. “Cartesian doubt” begins by doubting all things, but refuses to doubt its doubts.
b. Skeptics and scoffers begin with contempt and derision to prove their preconceived unbelief.
2. Uncertainty, lack of confidence, reservation, problematic, misgivings, questioning, wavering, indeterminate.”
First type of doubt is doubt going for a defence, second type is ‘faith seeking clarification or understanding.’ It is about this ‘faith seeking understanding’ I am referring here. Miguel de Unamuno says: “Faith which does not doubt is dead faith.” That is blind faith is dead faith. I think nobody today wants to entertain it. There are so many others who say something good about doubt. Let me quote:
Tennyson: “There lives more faith in honest doubt,/ Believe me, than in half the creeds.”
Browning: “You call for faith:/ I show you doubt, to prove that faith exists./ The more of doubt, the stronger faith, I say,/ If faith overcomes doubt.”
St. Augustine: “Doubt is but another element of faith.”
George Buttrick: “Genuine doubt is the reverse side of genuine faith.”
What all these people say is ‘genuine doubt helps you to grow in faith’. Think of people who never had troubles in faith and those who struggle through it. I appreciate those who never had doubts in their life of faith, if there are any. But I suppose those who had trouble believing but still held on to it like Thomas without leaving it. It is they who make that big leap of faith. Let me give an analogy borrowed:
Imagine a person who occasionally spends some time weightlifting. A good workout will cause him to exert himself, to strain his muscles. He will perspire; he will become fatigued; maybe he will even get winded. A few hours or a day later, he may be stiff and sore— even to the point of having difficulty moving.
Now imagine a person who not only does not lift weights, but knows nothing of the intent or purpose of doing so; the whole experience is totally foreign to him. If he sees the other person sweating, grunting, and straining, he will feel sorry for him. When he sees him stiff and sore, he may even be alarmed. He might say to himself, “This person has a problem. All this can’t be good for his health. Look at me. I’m never tired. I never sweat that way. I’m never in pain or stiff or sore. And when he’s lifting those huge barbells, he can only lift his hands over his head ten times. The weights are obviously the problem. I’ll bet I could lift my hands over my head two hundred times. And I’ll bet that without those weights, he could be just like me.”
Who is a healthy or strong man here?. So also who is a healthy Christian? Think and see. If you have problems and doubts in life. And struggling. Do not loose heart. Do not leave the community of those who believe. Amen
Fr. Showreelu Simham