Dear Friends in Christ

Dear Friends in Christ, Second Sunday of Easter 2018

Today we hear in our gospel the post resurrection story of Thomas, who was not present when the Lord first appeared to the Apostles. Thomas is the typical stereotype of those who refuse to believe unless they have physical proof; hence the expression ‘doubting Thomas’. But on his encounter with the Risen Lord, his doubt turns to faith, his fear turns to hope. But Jesus quite rightly says to Thomas, ‘You believe because you can see me, happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’ In the Life of faith, there is much that we will never fully understand completely, but the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, and showed himself to his disciples and many hundreds of others, is a testament to the power of God, and evokes faith as a response!

Faith is God’s gift to each one of us, how we respond to that faith is something which is very personal. In an age that is far less conscious of the sacred and the holy, we see many people walking away from the practice of any kind for formal faith. What we learn and glean form our parents in the practice and understanding of our faith is invaluable; you will never be able to quantify everything learnt along the journey of life and faith, this will help our understanding, and more importantly the commitment that we make to the practice of the our faith. WE will hopefully be able to echo the words of our Lord to Thomas: ‘…happy are we who have not seen, and yet believe!’