Thomas demanded proof that the Lord had risen. He needed to touch the Lord’s wounds if he was to believe. When the Lord appeared to him, perhaps he saw first the Lord’s wounds. Thomas touched them and heard the words: “Do not be unbelieving, but believe.” He believed.
The Lord’s disciples walked in the midst of pain and sorrow daily. They saw the hunger, the oppression, the exploitation. Yet they dared to believe that the Risen Lord stood in the midst of the world. They dared to believe that the Lord had taken as His own the wounds of the poor, the oppressed, and the exploited. And that for all time the Lord would carry these wounds.
We, today, look around and see the same things that the first disciples had seen. We see the exploited and the oppressed, the poor and the homeless. Do we dare to believe that the Risen Lord is still present in the midst of the world’s wounds?
—Fr. Robert Flack, S.J. is a retreat director at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House, Barrington IL.