🎶Introit (Ps 138, 17 | Ps 138, 1-2)
Mihi autem nimis honorati sunt amici tui, Deus: nimis confortatus est principatus eorum. Domine, probasti me, et cognovisti me: tu cognovisti sessionem meam, et resurrectionem meam.
To me Thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened. Lord, Thou hast proved me, and known me: Thou hast known my sitting down and my rising up.
📜Epistle (Eph 2, 19-22)
Brethren: Now you are no more strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the Saints and the domestics of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom all the building, being framed together, groweth up into a holy temple in the Lord. In whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
📖Gospel (Jn 20, 24-29)
At that time, Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them: Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe. And after eight days, again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: Peace be to you. Then He saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see My hands, and bring hither thy hand, and put it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said to Him: My Lord and my God. Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen Me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.
🔱The wound that heals unbelief and foundations the Church
🛡️The doubt of Saint Thomas should not be seen as an isolated weakness, but as a divine providence for the solidification of the doctrine of the Resurrection. By demanding physical contact with the wounds, Thomas allowed humanity to receive the definitive proof that the Risen Christ was not a ghost, but the same Incarnate Word who had suffered on the Cross. As Saint Gregory the Great teaches, Thomas's unbelief was more profitable for our faith than the immediate belief of the other disciples, for by touching the wounds, he healed the wound of our own doubt (St. Gregory the Great, Homily 26 on the Gospels). This mystical interaction between the Apostle and the Savior connects perfectly to the Epistle to the Ephesians, which presents the Apostles as the foundation of God's spiritual building. The Roman Missal, in the collect of this day, asks that we may be succored by the intercession of Saint Thomas, so that we may always celebrate his feast with piety and profess the faith that he, though hesitant, confirmed with such vigor. The Roman Catechism emphasizes that Thomas's confession is the pinnacle of the revelation of Christ's divinity in the New Testament. By placing his hand into Jesus' opened side, Thomas not only verified the reality of the flesh but penetrated the mystery of the Heart of God, becoming an essential "living stone" in the structure of the Church, which has Christ as its cornerstone. Jesus' final beatitude - "blessed are those who have not seen and have believed" - is the liturgical invitation for us, members of God's family, to live by sacramental faith, recognizing the real presence of the Lord under the Eucharistic veils, just as Thomas recognized Him under the veils of His glorified wounds.
✨See English version of the critical articles here.
📜Epistle (Eph 2, 19-22)
Brethren: Now you are no more strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the Saints and the domestics of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom all the building, being framed together, groweth up into a holy temple in the Lord. In whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
📖Gospel (Jn 20, 24-29)
At that time, Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them: Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe. And after eight days, again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: Peace be to you. Then He saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see My hands, and bring hither thy hand, and put it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said to Him: My Lord and my God. Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen Me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.
🔱The wound that heals unbelief and foundations the Church
🛡️The doubt of Saint Thomas should not be seen as an isolated weakness, but as a divine providence for the solidification of the doctrine of the Resurrection. By demanding physical contact with the wounds, Thomas allowed humanity to receive the definitive proof that the Risen Christ was not a ghost, but the same Incarnate Word who had suffered on the Cross. As Saint Gregory the Great teaches, Thomas's unbelief was more profitable for our faith than the immediate belief of the other disciples, for by touching the wounds, he healed the wound of our own doubt (St. Gregory the Great, Homily 26 on the Gospels). This mystical interaction between the Apostle and the Savior connects perfectly to the Epistle to the Ephesians, which presents the Apostles as the foundation of God's spiritual building. The Roman Missal, in the collect of this day, asks that we may be succored by the intercession of Saint Thomas, so that we may always celebrate his feast with piety and profess the faith that he, though hesitant, confirmed with such vigor. The Roman Catechism emphasizes that Thomas's confession is the pinnacle of the revelation of Christ's divinity in the New Testament. By placing his hand into Jesus' opened side, Thomas not only verified the reality of the flesh but penetrated the mystery of the Heart of God, becoming an essential "living stone" in the structure of the Church, which has Christ as its cornerstone. Jesus' final beatitude - "blessed are those who have not seen and have believed" - is the liturgical invitation for us, members of God's family, to live by sacramental faith, recognizing the real presence of the Lord under the Eucharistic veils, just as Thomas recognized Him under the veils of His glorified wounds.
✨See English version of the critical articles here.