The Beauty of Wonder
Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle // July 3rd, 2026 // John 20:24-29
It is an incredibly human trait to have doubts about the world, and as Christians, it is normal to have doubts about our faith. In fact, having doubts and asking questions is often how we come to know the loving care of the Lord; when we start to wonder, we arrive at the ultimate answer that God is Creator of all. That being said, today’s Gospel holds a special weight for those of us who have doubted God at any point in the past or present, as well as for those who will question Him in the future. We see how intentionally Christ listens to the questions St. Thomas has, and we see how He tended to those doubts; He did not look down on Thomas, but He cared for the apostle by reaffirming His love through His wounds.
Because of this, we know that no matter how harsh our doubts about the faith are (after all, Thomas questioned the most important event in all of Christianity - the Resurrection!), we can go to Him with our concerns. In addition, we know that when we are really struggling with these types of questions, we can specially invoke the intercession of St. Thomas in helping us navigate our wonder. Christ does not just help one person with his doubts in today’s Gospel, but He helps all of us too in providing us with both an affirmation and a saint to assist us along the way. Thomas responds to Jesus today by saying, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Once having doubted, he now fully affirms Christ’s divinity, showing us the beautiful faith that is possible when we open ourselves fully to God.
Jesus ends by telling St. Thomas, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (John 20:29). We see the same pattern of “blessed are those” as we see in the beatitudes appearing in Matthew 5; we know then that what Jesus is saying is something that will help us attain true fulfillment and happiness as a follower of His. He is telling us that true faith matters. We must not live by what we can see, but we must follow God and His love even when we do not know what will happen next. Yet still, in His infinite mercy, God draws close to us and makes Himself known.