Following the death of Lazarus, Jesus prepares to go to him in Bethany, a few miles from Jerusalem -- dangerously close for someone as unpopular with the religious leaders as He is. Thomas, in a moment of bravery not often expressed or acted upon by the Apostles before Pentecost, rallies the others to stay by their Master come what may:
I tend to interpret this passage in a light more favorable to my namesake. Thomas required no more proof than the other disciples of the risen Lord (see John 20:20), although he certainly demanded more proof than we require. Is it possible, I wonder, that Thomas's incredulity grew from his understanding that, if what his friends told him be true, then this man Jesus, with whom he had spoken and eaten and traveled, must be God? For a Jew, taught from infancy that the LORD is one, to believe that God became man and was killed on a cross is no small act of faith. To further consider that, at the moment when the God-Man most required his loyalty, Thomas had run away in fear, was a prospect to be avoided if at all possible.
I note, finally, that Thomas's wonderful profession, "My Lord and my God," is the clearest declaration of Jesus' divinity in Holy Scripture. Spoken to the Risen Christ, who had just convinced Thomas he was the same Jesus whom he had known before the Crucifixion, it is a statement of faith that a single Person is both man and God.
All in all, Thomas seems to have provided wonderful opportunities for Christ to teach us important and eternal truths, through the pen of the Evangelist.
St. Thomas appears as something of a character in some of the non-canonical legends surrounding the Apostles. It is said that he was not with the others at the Dormition of Mary. By the time he had arrived, Mary had been entombed, and when he demanded the tomb be unsealed that he may venerate the Mother of God, he was hit on the head by Mary's belt, which she dropped on him from Heaven.
St. Thomas is believed to have gone to India to preach the Gospel. Christians who trace their faith back to his mission live in Malabar, on the western coast of India, to this day. (See the Catholic Encyclopedia for an article on the St. Thomas Christians for more information.) There are reports that St. Thomas was slain by a spear while praying on a hill in Mylapur, near Madras on the east coast of India. His remains are said to have been buried there, and afterwards transported to the city of Edessa, in Mesopotamia, where confirmed reports of relics claimed to be his exist from the Fourth Century. (July 3, St. Thomas's feast in the Roman Calendar, is the date on which the Edessans celebrated the translation of the relics with "a great festival.") After eight hundred years, the relics were transported to the West, and now rest in Ortona, Italy.
I've heard two stories to explain St. Thomas as patron saint of builders. According to the first, he built a church with his own hands. According to the second, and more colorful, he offered to build a palace for an Indian king that would last forever. The king gave him money, which he gave to the poor. Asked to show his progress, St. Thomas explained that the palace he was building was in heaven, not on earth.
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