Today we read about St Thomas the Apostle in the book In Caelo et in Terra. He is often called Doubting Thomas, but let's take a look at that moniker.
He is called that because when Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to all of the other apostles except for Thomas. When the other apostles told Thomas that they'd seen Him risen, he said he wouldn't believe it until he saw it for himself. So he DID doubt what the other apostles told him.
But when he saw Jesus face to face (which the other apostles already had, and so their faith was based on this same face to face meeting), he immediately believed and made one of the very first proclamations of faith in Jesus as Lord and God.
Then, he went on to become a missionary around the world, traveling as far as southern India to share the good news that Jesus was, in fact, risen from the dead. He was martyred there, and when Portuguese explorers eventually went to southern India centuries later, they found a Christian community who stated that they had been founded by St Thomas. You can read more about him here.
Do we always believe what other Christians tell us? On one hand, we can avoid learning things "the hard way" if we learn from other Christians' mistakes. We avoid reinventing the wheel, and we avoid centuries' worth of heresies that have been aptly defeated.
On the other hand, other Christians aren't always right. People like Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and Robert Tilton might mean well (who are we to know if they mean well or not?) but their teachings don't always line up with what Jesus taught us. So we are right to test what Christians teach us and not take everything they say at face value.
We put our faith in God, not in other Christians. That's why when Christians fail, which they will over and over again, our faith isn't shaken. Our faith is in the unshakeable.
God, thanks for the example of this man who believed wholeheartedly in You. St Thomas, pray for us.
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