![\"divine](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2016\/04\/divine-mercy-1-248x300.jpg\")
I\u2019ve always thought it a special grace to think that the doubting disciple is featured as a key player in the gospel for the Sunday after Easter.<\/p>\nI\u2019ve always thought it a special grace to think that the doubting disciple is featured as a key player in the gospel for the Sunday after Easter.<\/p>\n
It is as if the whole church is saying, \u201cSee Thomas? It is okay to doubt.\u201d But let me qualify that. It is okay to have difficulties.<\/p>\n
Bl John Henry Newman said, \u201cTen thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.\u201d What he meant by this was that there was a difference between a doubt and a difficulty, and the difference is in the heart of the person.<\/p>\n
When we have a difficulty with the faith we are saying, \u201cHow can that be?\u201d<\/p>\n
When we have a doubt we are saying, \u201cThat can\u2019t be!\u201d<\/p>\n
The first is an honest question\u2013even if it is expressed in a negative or even an aggressive way.<\/p>\n
The second is a dismissal of the faith even if it is expressed in a polite and rational way.<\/p>\n
When we have a difficulty we have faith that is seeking to understand.<\/p>\n
When we have a doubt we have no faith and we are not seeking to understand.<\/p>\n
A difficulty is an affirmation even if it is not easy.<\/p>\n
A doubt is a denial because it is easy.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s where St Thomas comes in. We call him \u201cdoubting Thomas\u201d but we should call him \u201cwith difficulties Thomas.\u201d This is because, deep down, he did not have doubts. He had difficulties. He wanted to believe, he did not want to deny.<\/p>\n
And who, having begun to think through their faith does not have difficulties? I would even say that if you have never had a difficulty with your faith you haven\u2019t got faith. You\u2019re got unthinking obedience or probably just unthinking \u201cgoing through the motions\u201d of religion.<\/p>\n
It is when we start to think through our faith and we start taking it seriously that we begin to have difficulties, and the difficulties are simply the result of an enduring mind seeking the answers. We seek so that we might find. We ask so that we might discover the answer, and this is \u00a0the true adventure of faith.<\/p>\n
Thomas did ask, and he did find, and the reason we know he is \u201cwith difficulties Thomas\u201d and not \u201cdoubting Thomas\u201d is because when he received the answer he cried out with all the passion of a true believer, \u201cMy Lord and My God!\u201d<\/p>\n
And this is what I learned from the Divine Mercy image this weekend: that it is not only an image of the resurrection, but it is also an image of the Lord appearing to Thomas. What is Christ\u2019s upraised hand except an invitation to Thomas to put his finger in the nail print? What is the Lord\u2019s lifting of his robe to expose his side except him inviting Thomas to place his hand there on the wound from which flowed the blood and water out of which the church and her sacraments was founded?<\/p>\n
The Divine Image therefore invites all of us \u201cwith difficulties\u201d to ask and discover the answer, to seek and to find, to knock and to have the door of mercy opened to us.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve always thought it a special grace to think that the doubting disciple is featured as a key player in the gospel for the Sunday after Easter. It is as if the whole church is saying, \u201cSee Thomas? It is okay to doubt.\u201d But let me qualify that. It is okay to have difficulties. Bl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":21646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n