Br. Sebastian Vicente
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). These words of unbelief may strike us, coming from a man who followed Jesus for three years. But while it’s easy for us to reproach Thomas for not believing the other Apostles, we can still wonder why Jesus appeared to them without Thomas present. Everything that Jesus does is for a reason. For our benefit, Christ appeared to the disciples without Thomas so we too might believe. And startled by Thomas’s unbelief, this scene could help us in our Lenten observances.
Jesus wants us to adopt Thomas’s desire to place our fingers in his hands and in his side, not so that we might believe only, but so that we might be healed from our infirmities too. How can we do this? Obviously, Jesus’s physical body is not present with us, but we can still reach him by prayer and, especially, frequenting the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist.
Evagrius Ponticus gives a classic definition of prayer: “Prayer is the mind’s ascent toward God.” Prayer is a striving to reach our heavenly Father like a child would raise his arms so that his father might pick him up. And following Thomas’s example, perhaps another way of understanding prayer is as probing into God’s heart, into Jesus’s wounds. By prayer we enter into Jesus’s side and remain fixed within it, as the Psalmist says, “Hide me in the shadow of your wings” (Ps 17: 8). We enter into Jesus’s open side through prayer and remain hidden there, in his Sacred Heart which beats for love of us.
In the sacrament of penance, we touch the wounded side of Jesus, and so his blood,  » Read More
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2025/04/let-me-see-thomas-apostle-sebastian-vicente.html