Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle
Another first Friday and another apostle to reflect on: one who began with one reputation and ended with another. This apostle chose to take a doubting moment in his life and transform it into an evangelization lifetime, going to the ends of the earth (well, India), to spread his faith as expressed in “My LORD and my God.”
With scars, open wounds, and dark moments in our history being reopened through recent news events, will we ever be able to believe that God’s peace and healing is possible? Will we ever be able to get along and see that Christ’s nail prints are in each of us, no matter what our color? Our first reading invites us to remember that we are all “citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God.” That’s a pretty tall order: to remember that each of us is “sacred,” “built together,” and “a dwelling place of God in the spirit.” We need God’s eyes to see this.
Our founder, through his vision of the Eucharist, wanted to set the world on fire with the Eucharist and transform the four ends of the earth. Eymard also never doubted the Eucharist’s power to unite us.
Thomas took a fleeting, doubting moment, but spent the rest of his life trying to transform his world, inviting others to see the place of Christ in their lives. Today is another day for us to deepen our appreciation of Christ and “build upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets”—and, strengthened by the Eucharist, for us to be prophets who build up the body of Christ.
Who needs us to lend them a hand today, meeting them as scarred individuals, so that we can raise up one another?
Let Us Pray:
Loving God, inspired by the apostles of old and new, may I genuinely show your gifts of patience, love, and endurance. Through my trials and tribulations, especially in these ever uncertain and changing times, may your unchanging love guide me to unite the body of Christ.
Daily Eucharistic Reflection – Center for Eucharistic Evangelizing (eucharisticevangelizing.com)
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