Scripture readings for Sunday's Mass are here
My reflection on the Gospel of Doubting Thomas from last year is here
and from 2010 is here.
and an post earlier this year on faith and doubt
and yet another from the archives here on why questions can be important.
This version of Caravaggio's Doubting Thomas by John Granville Gregory called Still Doubting, hangs, currently, in Bangor Cathedral, North Wales. You can find a quirky comment on Tim Parker's Blog, here, and a comment from the artist himself.
There is so much to say on this Gospel probably because most people at some time or another experience the dark night of doubt, or dryness in faith. I know I have.
Today I am graced to be able to say that my faith in the Resurrection is resolute.
Today I am graced to be able to say that my faith in the Resurrection is resolute.
This post combines a reflection on doubt and the dear to my heart "thin places, specifically in the beautiful Scottish island of Iona and draws attention to the fact that poor old Thomas gets landed with the title of "the doubting disciple."
...."But Thomas appears
earlier in the Gospel according to John, when Jesus and the disciples
receive the news that Lazarus had died. Jesus wants to return to Lazarus
in Judea, where his life had been threatened before, and Thomas is the
only disciple who says: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
(John 11:16).
Neil Diamond's Man of God
for the 21st Century??
+
Our aspiration is not to be like Thomas and to kneel in
enthusiastic response to a Lord present before me in wounded radiance.
No: but in the darker valleys where we travel to translate the word that we receive, to fly blind when we believe that we do not see, when I believe I'm headed for a plunge into disaster.
This is quality response to a great endowment.
This is quality performance for the good of others. Amen."
When I was searching for some music for Doubting Thomas this first one below was by far the most common one mentioned on Tumblr, as was the the painting by Caravaggio.
It seems to strike a chord for a lot of people and points to some of the fears that can surface in our faith from time to time.
(Lord I believe, Help My unbelief !!)
I like Thomas very much despite his undeserved reputation as the
‘doubting’ disciple, a reputation mostly generated by misunderstanding.
For years I have heard many talks about how it is so bad to doubt, and
so good to believe.
In this kind of thinking, no wonder Thomas comes out as a bad example. Nobody talks about his willingness to die with Jesus, at least at that time, but they all talk about his unbelief."
Christ said blessed are those who cannot see but who believe and that's the theme of this song In this kind of thinking, no wonder Thomas comes out as a bad example. Nobody talks about his willingness to die with Jesus, at least at that time, but they all talk about his unbelief."
Neil Diamond's Man of God
for the 21st Century??
These two fine homilies for the Second Sunday of Easter are from the late Fr. Matthew Kelty OCSO. (See a previous post on him here)
The first is titled
- and I especially like this one Flying Blind in Total Trust which I have added in full below:
"The man told me that lithium
helped him deal with his mental illness; in fact, he felt just fine.
But it turned out that he did have some difficulties. The people next door
were out to get him. They harassed him constantly. "I know they do. I turn
a corner and there they are. I come out the door and so does he.
I drive
in the driveway and he comes along right after me. He peeks through the
windows, for I can see the curtains move. One day it got to us, so I went
out and sat in the car, locked the doors and called 911.
They came and
asked, "What's the matter?" I told them that they were peeking through
the curtains at me. The officer went next door and came back. "No one's
home there!" "Of course not. They don't answer."
If you could get so deeply into that man's confidence
that he would totally trust you, accept you, maybe you could get to the
point where you could tell him, "Look! You're getting false signals, erroneous
messages.
The information you receive isn't correct." If he'd listen to
you, he'd be a lot happier.
Forty pilots were hired to carry air mail in the 1920's.
Thirty-one died in crashes. The main reason: in flying through clouds
a pilot becomes disoriented. He ends up flying sideways even though he
is certain that he is flying straight and level.
The information his senses
deliver to him is faulty information. The inner ear cannot function for
balance in such circumstances. So the pilots go into a tail spin and crash.
It was not until the gyroscope and the artificial horizon that the situation
could be met. A pilot then flies blind and must rely wholly on the instruments.
Otherwise he will fly into the ground. A highly trained pilot with 18,000
hours took off in the Bombay night and promptly flew a graceful curve into
the Arabian sea. He thought the instruments — his and the co-pilot's —
were at fault.
His voice was on the tape. More than 200 perished for his
failure to trust the instruments instead of his own instincts.
If the mentally ill man would fly blind and listen to
his mentor, he could manage. If a pilot in the total cloud-scape rejects
his instincts and flies blind, he'll make it. But in either case, the human
messages he is receiving are faulty.
And in the human scene faith, is the source of the only
reliable messages in the world of life's deepest questions.
To stand at
a grave-side, witness to the total end of a human life, is to experience
the onslaught of how many messages that, "This is the end. There is no
more. It's over and out. We come and we go and that is it."
But the messages that faith gives us are entirely different.
And if an ill person needs to trust another's judgment, if a pilot absolutely
must fly blind in total reliance on his instruments, so human existence
can only be whole and sound and sane when we live with total reliance on
what our faith tells us.
Total trust. Fly blind.
And of course, it's a move beyond what Thomas did in this
morning's gospel. He flatly refused to accept talk of Christ's rising unless
he see the Lord with his own eyes, touch Him in wounded hand and side.
Jesus gently rebuked the man. "So you believe now that you see. There's
a bigger step and a stronger faith and a greater love when you believe
even when you do not see.
Some day you must do that."
I think we are naive if we think blind trust in another
or in what our instruments tell us is easy. It is not.
It would require
great trust in another when all the evidence tells me I see him behind
the curtain that's moving in his window. When every bone in my body
tells me I'm flying sideways and I'm gaining altitude.
There are two points to remember about faith. One is this:
it's a gift of God. And the second, having it doesn't make you superior.
You do have superior gifts, but that doesn't make you superior.
If anything, it places you under tremendous obligations:
an obligation of gratitude, an attitude of response to the gift and of
responsibility to human kind.
Living for others, I guess, is the only way
to respond to such blessing. "New money"-- you know: coming
suddenly into a fortune — is one thing. I don't know much about that. But
"old money" I heard tell on that.
Old money means: entitlement and
commitment. Entitlement: you've got a perfect right to your wealth,
sense no guilt . No need to apologize for it. And commitment: you
use your wealth for good.
If that be true in terms of worldly goods, how much more
for those of grace!
We do not sense guilt because we have the gift of faith,
but we sense the need to use it for the good of all.
Most of all in a deep
faith that functions not only in blessings and graces, but also in darkness,
in suffering, and in doubt: when we enter in depth into the human
scene.
And this the more so in a world that knows more sorrow and more
suffering than we know, and often enough with small supernatural comfort.
No: but in the darker valleys where we travel to translate the word that we receive, to fly blind when we believe that we do not see, when I believe I'm headed for a plunge into disaster.
This is quality response to a great endowment.
This is quality performance for the good of others. Amen."
When I was searching for some music for Doubting Thomas this first one below was by far the most common one mentioned on Tumblr, as was the the painting by Caravaggio.
It seems to strike a chord for a lot of people and points to some of the fears that can surface in our faith from time to time.
(Lord I believe, Help My unbelief !!)
Nickel Creek Doubting Thomas
Another take on doubt and belief
Another take on doubt and belief
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