Who Was Thomas’ Twin?

 (Divine Mercy Sunday homily)

Thomas, called “the twin…” (cf. John 11:16, 20:24) Who was his twin brother? We will discover him today perhaps, as we meditate upon Thomas’ unbelief.

1.  Thomas seems to have been one of those people who usually sees the empty half of the glass. A good person, for sure, but more prone to discouragement than to, say, anger.

There is another moment in John’s Gospel when we hear about Thomas. “On hearing that Lazarus was sick, [Jesus] stayed where He was for two days, and then He said to the disciples, ‘Let us go back to Judea.’ ‘Rabbi,’ they replied, ‘the Jews just tried to stone You, and You are going back there?’” Jesus insisted “‘Let us go to [Lazarus].’ Then Thomas called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, so that we may die with Him’” (cf. John 11:6-16). It seems as if he were saying, “It’s all lost, there is no point, no favorable outcome on sight: we are all going to die with Jesus.” Thomas could not see how something good could come out from taking this risk.

2.  In today’s Gospel (John 20:19-31), when the other disciples tell Him the good news, Thomas is at the bottom of the well, so to speak. True, Thomas had no right to doubt their witness; but he had gone through a particular trauma and needed perhaps more compassion than the others. Thomas “knew” that everything was going to end badly with Jesus: that is, he always expected the worse, so it was part of his personality to think that Jesus’ fate would be no exception. The other disciples were perhaps more hopeful than Thomas, but for the wrong reason. They were expecting that Jesus, with one of His miracles, would save Himself from the Jews (cf. Matthew 16:21-23). And now, for Thomas, they were all wrong and he was right. Not only the leaders had killed Jesus, but they had killed Him in the most horrible way.

People like Thomas realize that they are perhaps a little negative and that sometimes things are not so bad. But when things are bad, they suffer more intensely… Their worst fears are confirmed, and so they fall so deeply into sadness that, sometimes, it seems as if nothing in the world could bring them back to life. Thomas was dead in his hope, lifeless. And Jesus knew it took a God to raise Thomas from the dead, so He went back. Eight days later, Jesus went back to extend a hand of mercy to Thomas, the twin, to extend a hand with a hole in it.

Thomas had heard the women, had heard Peter (the first pope), had heard the disciples of Emmaus and perhaps even seen their joy, and had also heard all of the apostles telling him about the entrance of the Lord to the upper room… Thomas should have believed what he heard, but he had seen so much blood on Calvary hill, so much hatred in Jesus’ enemies… His beloved Friend, Jesus, his Hope, was dead, and Thomas’ eyes were blurred with tears, blinded with grief. Thomas, called the twin, was blind to faith and God’s plan.

3.  I wonder who his twin was, or whether he had a twin sister, instead. I wonder if they are here today with us.

Thomas’ twin would think: “Can Jesus be alive when we see so much evil today?” Is the evil we see stronger than our faith? Are our eyes blurred by evil, so much that we cannot expect God to take anything good out of it? Are we not all prone to forget that the glass is half full, or at least not completely empty? And if your glass is empty, do you not know that the springs of salvation are eternal? Come with your empty glass, taste and see how good the Lord is! In Holy Communion, we drink blood tasting like wine. It is Blood, and so gives life and strength; but it tastes like wine, because it gives joy. The joy that can wipe away every tear.

The reason I am talking about Thomas today is not as a way of reproach, but to raise our hope in God’s infinite mercy. Jesus knows about sadness and discouragement, and this is why He was compassionate towards Thomas. Jesus would have done the same with Thomas’ twin. If you are that twin, “put your finger here and see Jesus’ hands, and bring your hand and put it into Jesus’ side,” (cf. John 20:27) touching His heart. His Heart remained open after the resurrection, for you.

We are the ones who need to see sometimes, in order to believe. We are the ones who need to touch, the ones whose faith is weak and sometimes lost. In mysterious ways, God wants to be merciful to us as well. So, when He appears, when He invites you closer, do not hold back. Jesus comes to your rescue. Respond to Him when He speaks. Open your ears, listen to Him, and respond. Is He perhaps asking you to touch His wounds, by reflecting on how much He suffered for you? Is He asking you to put your finger in His hands, by touching the wounds of those who suffer? Is He asking you to touch His side, to come closer to His Heart, so that you may receive forgiveness from Him? The forgiveness we receive in the Sacrament of Reconciliation does not come from the priest but from Jesus’ wounded Heart. And it doesn’t hurt, it heals, it liberates…

If evil or suffering has weakened our faith, let us open our hearts to Jesus’ presence, to Jesus’ gentle reproach, to Jesus’ peace, to Jesus’ words of comfort. Let us approach Him with confidence when He invites us to touch His heart. Let us trust Him again, when we see, with Thomas our twin brother, that the cross is followed by the Resurrection.