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When John in his Gospel wrote that what
he was writing was "what we have seen and touched," he also had him
in mind: Thomas, that is, the "empiricist" apostle, the one whom the
Synoptics (the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke) include in the
second group along with Matthew. His name gives a clue to his origin.
Thomas in Syriac is the equivalent of the Greek Didymos, or twin.
And too, an ancient tradition attests to the veneration of the apostle
in Edessa, Syria (now Urfa, Turkey). While the Synoptics only mention
him in the presentation of the Twelve, John pays much more attention
to him. He names Thomas on seven specific occasions. Three of these
are highly meaningful for revealing Thomas's character. The first
(Jn 11:6) concerns the illness of Lazarus: Jesus decides to go back
to Judea, to Bethany, to see His friend. The apostles are skeptical,
because they know that in Judea the authorities' hostility toward
Him has exploded, and those who follow Him are also in physical danger.
Everyone is quiet except Thomas, who, turning to his friends, says,
"Let us also go to die with Him!" Frankness is certainly not a virtue
that Thomas lacks. And the second episode shows this as well. The
Last Supper is almost over, and Jesus has announced His imminent betrayal,
although not everyone has grasped it (when Judah leaves the table,
John points out, "None of the others at table understood why He said
this.") Jesus tries to reassure His disciples, saying, "I am going
now to prepare a place for you…. You know the way to the place where
I am going." But Thomas is not sure of this, "Lord, we do not know
where You are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus responds,
"I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father
except through me." (Jn 14:1-6) The only possibility for salvation
lies in knowing the way before one knows where one is going; that
is, in being on the road without even knowing exactly where it may
lead.
Three requests
Finally, there is the best-known episode, the one after the Resurrection.
Jesus appears to a group of the apostles, but Thomas is not among
them. Those who were there, however, tell him immediately what they
had seen. Thomas's reaction is not dictated by skepticism. It is his
empirical nature that leads him to doubt everything he has not seen
with his own eyes and touched with his own hands. It is an immediate
reaction, the result of his frankness: "Unless I can see the holes
that the nails made in His hands and can put my finger into the holes,
and unless I can put my hand into His side, I refuse to believe."
Three precise, insistent, almost impudent demands. But Jesus is unperturbed
by them. Knowing His friends profoundly, He understands their weaknesses
and their needs. Eight days later Jesus once again presents Himself
to His friends. And as soon as He sees that Thomas is also there,
He calls him to Him without forgetting any of his requests, "Put your
finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into
my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe." (Jn 20:24-28)
Then Jesus adds what has always seemed like a rebuke, "You believe
because you can see Me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
believe." Ignace De La Potterie, a Jesuit and great Biblical scholar,
explained this passage, underlining how in reality the translation
should be set in the past tense, "It is not correct to translate in
the future. There are two verbs in the aorist tense, and in all the
other cases of John's use of the aorist, these are indications of
what has gone before." Thus, De la Potterie explains, "The rebuke
falls on the fact that Thomas refused in the beginning to believe
what the disciples had said." Caravaggio, narrating this scene in
one of the most beautiful pictures in the whole history of painting
(now in Potsdam, Germany, just outside Berlin), reveals a very human
detail which makes us understand that Thomas's condition is everyone's
condition, and for this reason it is so real. In fact, while the apostle
brutally sticks his finger into Jesus' side, two other apostles behind
him are watching, their eyes drawn curiously to it. They too want
to have the empirical certainty that the person in front of them is
Jesus in the flesh. What Thomas is doing, he is doing for them as
well. They have seen, touched, believed. They have exclaimed, "My
Lord and my God!"
The empiricist apostle reappears in John's Gospel on the occasion
of Jesus' appearance at the Sea of Galilee. Seven of them have gone
fishing, following Peter. Among them is John, who, with the precision
of a chronicler, says that Thomas was there too.
In India
Later, what happened to him? The Acts of Thomas, the most important
of the apocryphal writings attributed to him, recount that, while
in Jerusalem, the disciples drew lots to determine where they would
go as missionaries and Thomas drew India. The Acts tell of his lack
of enthusiasm. He did not want to go, saying, "I do not have enough
strength, I am weak." Jesus had to intervene once again, appearing
to him in a dream, "Have no fear, Thomas! My grace is with you." But,
faithful to his nature, Thomas is not convinced, imploring, "Send
me where you please, Lord! India is the only place where I do not
want to go." So the Lord uses a trick and sells the disciple to an
Indian merchant, who has come to look for a builder on behalf of King
Gudnafar. At this point Thomas gives up. According to this legend,
he indeed sets out for India.
There are numerous signs in India that witness to his presence there
(together with Matthew). In the early centuries, Ambrose, Paul, and
Jerome speak of it: Thomas seems to have disembarked at Mylapore,
now called Madras, where he was martyred and where his tomb is still
venerated today. The signs of a Christian presence in India are many
and date to the very earliest times of Christianity. At the Council
of Nicaea in 325, a bishop named John, a Syro-Chaldean from India,
was present. And still today there exists in the Malabar region in
southern India a group of Christians who follow the tradition of using
the Syriac language for the liturgy.
Saint Francis Xavier
But the one who met, to his great wonder, and came to know this small
flock of Christians in India was St. Francis Xavier, who arrived there
in 1541. Landing on the island of Socotora, he found people who said
they were Christians. Rather, as he writes in his letters, "they say
they are honored to call themselves Christians, and they own churches,
crosses, and lamps." Here the priests were called cacizes, and even
though they did not know how to read or write they still fully remembered
the prayers: "They do not understand the prayers they recite, as these
are not in their tongue; I believe they are in Chaldean. They venerate
St. Thomas and they say they are descendants of the Christians whom
St. Thomas converted in these places." In May 1545, Xavier went to
Mylapore to venerate the tomb of St. Thomas. It is here that he probably
recovered the relic of the apostle that, upon his death, was found
in the small reliquary he wore around his neck. In this same reliquary
he kept the signatures of the letters from his friends, which he had
received from Europe, "I want you to know, my dear brothers, that
from the letters you have written me I have cut out your names, written
in your own hands, and I carry them always with me for the consolation
that I receive from them." And these, like the relics of the Saint,
were for Francis a foretaste of Paradise, "Soon we shall see each
other in the other life with greater repose than in this one."
"We know this category very well, this type of person, even among
young people. These empiricists… are very valuable, because this wanting
to touch, wanting to see, all this speaks of the seriousness with
which reality, the knowledge of reality, is treated. And they are
ready, if at some point Jesus comes and presents Himself to them,
if He shows His wounds, His hands, His side, then they are ready to
say, 'My Lord and my God!' I think that there are many of your friends,
people your age, who have this empirical, scientific mentality, but
if once they could touch Jesus from up close-could see Christ's face-if
once they can touch Jesus, if they see Him in you, they will say,
'My Lord and my God!'"
(John Paul II, March 24, 1994)
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Name: Thomas
Origin: perhaps Edessa, now called Urfa, in Turkey near the Syrian
border.
Profession: fisherman
Identifying traits: beard, dark hair, a tendency toward laziness
Feast day: July 3
Information in: the four Gospels; the Acts of the Apostles; the Acts
of Thomas, an ancient apocryphal text; and the letters of St. Francis
Xavier.
Places of special veneration: In Madras, southern India, the Cathedral
of St. Tomé was reconstructed in 1500 on the spot where Thomas was
buried. In Urfa, the ancient Edessa, instead, no signs of the apostle
have been preserved.
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Name: Bartholomew or Nathanael
Origin: Cana, Galilee
Profession: fisherman
Identifying traits: beard, dark hair, about 50 years old
Feast day: August 24
Information in: the four Gospels; the Acts of the Apostles; and the
writings of Eusebius and Jacob of Varagine
Places of special veneration: The remains of St. Bartholomew are preserved
under the high altar of the Church of San Bartolomeo all'Isola, in
Rome.
Benevento, the Italian city that held these remains for over a century,
also preserves relics in the Church of San Bartolomeo. Finally, relics
of the Saint are venerated in the Cathedral of Toulouse and Canterbury.