IN DEFENSE OF ST. THOMAS

IN DEFENSE OF ST. THOMAS

“The evil men do lives after them.  The good is often interred with their bones.”

(Wm. Shakespeare: Julius Caesar)

Marc Antony was speaking of Julius Caesar, but the words apply to St. Thomas the Apostle as well.  Because Thomas would not take the word of the other disciples, but instead insisted on seeing the risen Lord for himself, he has been dubbed “The Doubter” for centuries.  Whenever his name is mentioned that sobriquet is always added. This is unfair and unjust.  When Mary Magdalene told Peter that Jesus had risen and she had seen him, he dismissed it as the ramblings of a woman and ran to see for himself.  No one has called him a doubter.

Thomas probably regretted his dramatic words about putting his hands in the nail holes, etc., but wanting to see for himself before committing was part of who he was and he couldn’t help that.  I guess I want to defend Thomas because I would have done what he did. I might not have phrased it exactly as he did, but I would have wanted to see for myself.

There is nothing to be done to correct the fact that Thomas will always be identified as the Doubter, however, it is indicative of something else.  Thomas was a victim of gossip as surely as any person, whose actions become common knowledge and by that they are judged.  Can you just hear it?  Someone mentions that Thomas is one of the twelve and someone else says,

“O yes.  Isn’t he the one who didn’t believe Jesus rose?”

Think of it, a close disciple of Jesus, one of the revered twelve, a victim of judgmental gossip for 2000 years.  Perhaps that is why Thomas evangelized in India.  He made his way through the east and finally stopped in India.  There he founded the church and baptized many.  To this day their descendants are known as St. Thomas Christians.

Gossip ought to be regarded as the 8^th deadly sin.  Gossip causes us to sit in judgment on others, which Jesus warned would have repercussions for us. It destroys reputations. It ruins lives and it shrinks the souls of those who spread it. I once quit a job because a co-worker gossiped incessantly about neighbors I knew. I quit when I realized I not only repeated the gossip, I believed it with no evidence what so ever. I quit rather than confront her and I regret that very much.  Today I ask people not to tell me what they are dying to tell.  If I hear it before I can stop it, I tell the person that I wish they had never told me because now I have to live with the knowledge. The Spirit within must cringe every time.   We can’t broadcast our neighbor’s faults, errors and sins and not care what effect it has on their lives, and still call ourselves disciples of Christ.

Blessings

Carol Lemelin OPA