Doubting Thomas. That’s a pretty tough moniker to carry around for eternity, isn’t it?
I certainly wouldn’t like to be defined by a moment of weakness I had. Hey, there goes Jerk Matt. Proud Matt. Even Judas who doesn’t have an easy role to play, mind you, isn’t called “Suicidal Judas” or “traitor Judas.” But let’s be honest, he’s got lotsa’ other problems.
But we all doubt at times, don’t we? The great and beautiful thing is we are not our sins. We’re what we allow God to make us into. In the end, let’s remember that “Doubting Thomas” is Saint Thomas and that’s a pretty happy ending to the story.
I think the thing we like is we take comfort in the fact that the apostles weren’t perfect all the time. It’s kinda’ comical how the Bible really doesn’t make the apostles look good. You’d think if the early Church is putting the books to the Bible together, they might’ve wanted to make the apostles look better. Worst sales job ever.
Peter ran away from the crucifixion. He denied Jesus three times. And he’s the first pope! Jesus calls him “Satan” at one point. That’s something I’d bet Peter wanted left on the editing room floor.
At times, Jesus was trying to teach all the apostles something important and then they’re just arguing over who Jesus liked most.
Did Jesus get migraines?
And then when Jesus asked them to stay up and pray with Him what did they do? They returned to sleep. They hit snooze on Jesus. But don’t we all sometimes do that?
That’s something I take great solace in. Christians were always terribly flawed. And sometimes, especially now, it seems that some Catholics seem intent on destroying the Church from within. We’ve graduated from incompetence and sinfulness to malintent and evil.
But the Holy Spirit has been guiding this Church from the beginning. We should pray for the Church and the clergy and pray for the souls that are being lost in these confusing times. We shouldn’t abandon the Church because God has not abandoned the Church. Of that I have no doubt.
