This Sunday we hear the story of Thomas, who needed to touch to believe. I'll leave aside all the caveats about 'doubting Thomas.' I've been pondering Jesus' words to him, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
It's always sounded harsh to me, judgmental, like Jesus is ranking some disciples above others or warning us to believe no matter what. But today I see that he doesn't say that those who believe without seeing are better; he says they're blessed. They're happy (makarios). They've got onto something good. And that I can get on board with.
God loves me whether I believe in God or not. Jesus loves me whether or not I believe in the resurrection, or believe he is my Savior, or any of the other clauses of the catechisms we learn. No, that's not what's at stake here.
What's at stake is my joy in knowing God in Jesus, in knowing that love that never dies, in accessing the crazy power of resurrection. If I can believe in that and live my life from that, I'm blessed. If I demand proof before I let myself live from there, I'm cut off from a source of joy beyond my wildest dreams.
Jesus' whole life and death are a testimony to the power of crazy love. Nothing about his story makes sense. If it did, it would just be an interesting story. It's precisely because it exceeds sense that we look up and notice the world in new ways. And that is a blessing.
So go ahead and doubt. Great faith includes great doubt. And then jump in, past the doubt, to the love. Be blessed. Alleluia!
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