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St. Thomas the Apostle — Doubting Thomas... The True Story · Everyday Saints: A Catholic Podcast

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  A man is standing in a locked room, staring at a man he had watched die. His name is Thomas.
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  He is the only one in that room who demanded to see this with his own eyes before he would
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  believe it. And what he does next after this moment, after this room, is something history
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  completely forgot to tell you. Most people know that moment and nothing else. They do not know
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  that this same man, the one history branded as a doubter for 2000 years, went on to travel
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  3000 miles alone to bring the story of Jesus to a country none of the other apostles would
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  touch. He built seven churches. He died there. And the Christian community he founded is still
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  active in India today. My name is John O'Connor and this is Everyday Saints. you
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  If you are new here, welcome to the porch. Stick around. And if this connects with you, subscribe
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  so you don't miss next week. We drop a new saint every Thursday. This week, we are talking
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  about one of the most famous nicknames in the English language. Doubting Thomas. Two words
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  that have become shorthand for any person who refuses to believe something without evidence.
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  Most people who use that phrase have never read what Thomas actually said or what he did immediately
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  after, or what the rest of his life looked like. What they know is one moment, one absence
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  from one room, one demand for proof. But here is the rest of the story. This is the story
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  of St. Thomas the Apostle. So here is something most people do not know about Thomas. And it
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  matters enormously for understanding the moment he is famous for. He was not a coward, He was
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  not weak in faith. He was not the nervous hand-wringing disciple. The nickname suggests. No. In fact,
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  if you read the gospel of John carefully, Thomas is one of the most distinct and fully drawn
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  personalities among all the disciples. He speaks only four times in the gospel, but every time
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  he speaks, he says something. Nobody else in the room was willing to say. The first time
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  Thomas speaks, Jesus has announced his intention to return to Judea, the region just outside
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  Jerusalem, where his enemies are most concentrated, where the threat of arrest and execution is
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  very real. The disciples, they are obviously alarmed. They tried to talk him out of it.
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  Why go back there right now? Thomas looks at the rest of them and says, let us also go that
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  we may die with him. Not let us see what happens, not let us trust it will work out, but let
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  us go and die with him. Thomas was the only one willing to name out loud what the journey
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  might actually cost. And he was willing to go anyway. So that is not doubt. That is the most
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  direct expression of loyalty in that room. And it came from the man history decided to call
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  the doubter. Later at the last supper, Jesus tells the disciples he is going away to prepare
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  a place for them and that they know the way to where he is going. It is a mysterious statement.
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  The other disciples, they sit in silence. Maybe they are nodding politely. Maybe they are confused
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  but do not want to say so. But Thomas, he speaks. Lord, we do not know where you are going. How
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  can we know the way? It is an honest question, a logical question, the kind of question a
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  man asks when he is paying careful attention and something does not yet add up. Jesus' response
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  to that question is one of the most famous sentences in the entire New Testament. I am the way and
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  the truth and the life. That sentence exists in the gospel because Thomas asked the question
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  nobody else would ask. That is worth sitting with. It is now three days after the crucification.
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  The disciples are gathered in a locked room in Jerusalem, locked because they are terrified.
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  Their leader had just been executed by the Roman state and they have every reason to believe
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  they are next. Jesus appears somehow through locked doors in a body that has been in a tomb
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  for three days. He is suddenly there. He shows them the wounds. Disciples, they are overwhelmed.
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  They believe. But Thomas is not there. Where was he? The scripture does not say. What was
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  he doing? We do not know. He simply was not in that room when it happened. When the others
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  find him and tell him we have seen the Lord, Thomas says something that has defined his
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  reputation for 2000 years. Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my
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  finger into the mark of the nails and put my hand into his side. I will not believe. But
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  here is what I want you to notice before we move on. Every single one of the other disciples
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  had the same reaction when they were in Thomas's position. When the women came back from the
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  tomb on Easter morning and said Jesus was risen, the disciples did not believe them either.
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  Luke tells us their words seemed to them an idle tale. They only believed when they saw
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  him themselves. Thomas was simply in the position of not having seen it yet. He responded the
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  same way every other disciple had responded before they saw. The only difference is that
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  his response got written down and attached to his name forever. Eight days later, Jesus appears
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  again. This time Thomas is there. Jesus looks directly at Thomas, not at the group, at Thomas
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  specifically, as if the whole reason for this second appearance is the one man who wasn't
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  there for the first one. Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put
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  it into my side. Do not doubt, but believe. Whether Thomas actually touched the wounds,
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  the text does not make fully clear. What is completely clear is what he said in that moment,
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  not, I believe you now, not, you were right and I was wrong. Thomas looked at Jesus and
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  said, my Lord and my God. That is the most complete declaration of faith in the entire gospel of
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  John, not Peters, not Mary Magdalene. Thomas, the doubter, the one who demanded proof, spoke
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  the clearest. most explicit acknowledgement of Jesus' full divine identity that any disciple
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  ever uttered. The man who asked the hardest question gave the most complete answer. After
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  the Pentecost, the disciples scattered to spread what they had witnessed. The known world was
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  divided among them. India fell to Thomas. Thomas said no. He said he was not healthy enough.
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  He said a Hebrew man could not teach Indians. He said he was not the right person for this.
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  This is the same man who once said, let us also go that way so we may die with him. Now he
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  is saying not India, anyone but India. What finally moved him is one of the stranger details
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  in this story. And it arrived in a way Thomas almost certainly did not see coming. A merchant
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  named Abanese arrived in Jerusalem on behalf of an Indian king who wanted a skilled builder.
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  According to the early tradition, Jesus appeared to hit this merchant and arrange for Thomas
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  to go with him. So essentially sold as a slave to ensure he made the trip. And so Thomas,
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  well, he found himself on a boat he never chose, headed toward a country he never planned to
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  see. Thomas was on his way to India whether he wanted to go or not. He arrived on the southwestern
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  coast of India, the region now called Kerala, around 52 AD. Picture what that journey meant.
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  There were no roads connecting Jerusalem to Kerala, no maps of the route, no previous missionary
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  had ever gone there. He traveled by sea along established trade lanes, but making that journey
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  as a single man with no institutional support, no money, no connections in the country he
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  was heading to. That is just not a small thing. He preached in a land where no one had ever
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  heard the name of Jesus. He built seven churches along the Malabar coast. He baptized prominent
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  local families. He established what became one of the oldest continuous Christian communities
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  in the world. The St. Thomas Christians. who still exist in Kerala today, numbering in the
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  millions. He was martyred around 72 AD on a hill outside the city now called Chennai, stabbed
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  with a spear while he was at prayer. He had been in India for 20 years. 3000 miles from
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  Jerusalem, the man who said, not India, buried in India for 2000 years. Alright, back on the
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  porch. The thing I keep returning to with Thomas is what happened immediately after the demand
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  for proof. The moment most people stopped the Thomas said, show me Jesus showed him. And
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  Thomas responded with the most complete declaration of faith in the gospel. We treat the demand
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  as the failure, but the demand was not the end of the story. The demand was the honest place
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  Thomas had to start from before he could arrive at where he ended up. And notice something.
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  Jesus did not shame him for it. He did not say, Thomas, I am disappointed in you. He did not
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  say, look at the other disciples and see how they believed. He came back. Jesus came back
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  specifically. for the one who had not yet seen. He showed up the second time with Thomas's
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  exact requirements in mind. Now, that tells you something about how God handles honest
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  doubt. The doubter went to India. The man who said, show me, became the apostle of a nation.
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  The person his sister rebranded as weak in faith traveled further and stayed longer than almost
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  any of the others. If we are being real about it, there are things about my own faith I still
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  hold with something closer to Thomas's stance and say St. Peter's. Things I'm still working
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  through. Questions I have not finished asking. And honestly, there are moments where I wonder
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  if that disqualifies me from being the person doing the show. Like I should have it more
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  together than I do. So I've actually been thinking about doing a special episode on this, maybe
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  a short series. Just on the subject of doubt. My own struggles with it. People I know in
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  their struggles. Heck, maybe yours. How we are handling it. Fighting through it. Growing from
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  it. But that is for another time. What I will say right now is this. Thomas did not have
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  it together in that room. And Jesus came back specifically for him and then sent him further
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  than anyone else went. So the practical challenge this week, what is the honest question you
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  have been afraid to ask because you think asking it means you do not believe name it, ask it.
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  Thomas asked his in front of everyone and the answer he got was worth every moment of the
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  asking. And now it is time for the closing prayer. Lord, thank you for Thomas. Thank you that
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  you showed up the second time specifically for the one who wasn't there the first time
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  that you did not move on without him, that you looked right at him and said, put your hand
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  here, see for yourself for everyone listening, who is waiting for something they have not
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  yet seen. Remind them that Thomas waited eight days and You came back that the question did
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  not disqualify him, that the demand for proof was not the end of the story. was the beginning
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  of one of the most remarkable journeys in the history of the early church. And for anyone
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  who has been carrying the nickname doubter because they asked a hard question, remind them where
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  Thomas ended up 3000 miles away. building something that is still standing 2000 years later. We
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  love you even when we are still waiting to see. Amen. And as always, one more thing before
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  we go. Thomas is the patron saint of India for obvious reasons. He is also the patron saint
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  of architects and builders because tradition holds he was a skilled craftsman before Jesus
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  called him. One story from his time in India has him promising to build a palace for a local
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  king, then spending the money on the poor instead. When the king found out he was furious, Thomas
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  told him the palace was being built in heaven. Now, whether that story is literally true
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  or not, it does capture who Thomas was. A man who took the long view in everything he did.
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  He is also the patron saint of doubters. The man who demanded proof became the intercessor
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  for everyone still in that place of honest, not yet belief. His feast day is July 3rd.
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  The Basilica of St. Thomas and Chennai, India, built over the traditional site of his tomb,
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  draws thousands of pilgrims on that day. A church built on the grave of a man who said, not India,
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  who went anyway, who never came home. There are roughly 20 million St. Thomas Christians
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  in India today, tracing their faith back to 52 AD, to one reluctant man, who got on a boat
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  and went where he did not want to go and did not stop until he had no more road left to
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  walk. Well, that is episode 11 of Everyday Saints. If Thomas's story connected with you, share
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  it, one person, someone who might need to hear that the honest question is not the end
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  of the story. Leave a review if you have a minute. It genuinely helps more people find
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  the show. Next week, We go looking again in the places nobody else looks. A woman whose
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  name you have probably never heard and a courage that is going to surprise you. I'm John O'Connor.
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  Thanks for sitting on the porch with me and I will see you next week.