Today Christians celebrate the feast of a direct disciple of Jesus — Thomas the apostle — who is believed to have landed on the coast of Kerala in 52 AD, even before a clear word on the life of Jesus was written, notwithstanding several references made to Him in the Old Testament.
Despite the hazardous journey that Thomas undertook to come to a land with a completely different culture to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, the poor Thomas is known more for being a “doubter” than the herald of precious good tidings. The gospels report that he was the first to express doubt in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, stating, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
Though one is not sure why he was absent when Jesus appeared the first time to his companions, one surmises that being deeply shocked with the whole tragic death of his trusted Lord and Master Jesus, he was somewhere alone grieving the unspeakable misfortune. Bogged down in sorrow, he could not even recall Jesus’ prophesy about himself, “…the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests… and that he must be killed and after three days rise again”. I can vouch from my own personal experience that my doubts about God’s love and care are the strongest when a tearing personal tragedy, through injustice or betrayal, hits me.
Thomas was lucky to have a direct encounter with Jesus then. One common element about Christian spirituality is that God’s loving assurance comes to us mostly through sharing Jesus’ own pain and shame unjustly meted to him. Thomas’ experience of the risen Jesus eventually led him to his martyrdom, believed to have taken place in Tamil Nadu.
July 3 is the feast of Thomas the Apostle, a direct disciple of Jesus who is supposed to have come to India in 52 AD.
