Familia

Day's Saints 
Thomas the Apostle
Blessed Andreas Eberbach, Premonstratensian

Eph 2:19-22
Brothers and sisters:
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together
and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Gospel Jn 20:24-29

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,

was not with them when Jesus came.

So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."

But Thomas said to them,

"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands

and put my finger into the nailmarks

and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

Now a week later his disciples were again inside

and Thomas was with them.

Jesus came, although the doors were locked,

and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."

Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands,

and bring your hand and put it into my side,

and do not be unbelieving, but believe."

Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

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See the regard he has for his companions, the writer of the Epistle to the Ephesians; we are no longer strangers and sojourners. We know each other and our lives are united by the Holy Spirit in a Body with Christ.

See the means by which Jesus chose to reveal Himself so as to be believed; He shows His wounds, still fresh from the crucifixion, and glorified as manifestations of His great glory, not horrific images of agony any more. Though He is capable of mountint a cross to resume His place again. He is more than capable of saving us, however wretched we may be, because He is a forgiving God and Lord.

If we die like the martyrs did, we will simply be joinng the more securely with Him, fastened in a bond of love that is indissoluable.

I do not doubt there are those among you whose hearts and affections the Lord could steal so that you could bleed from visible wounds to proclaim your unity with Him by His love. But He is content with most to love them without their participating in the agonies He endured in order to atone for sin and to bestow redemption on us who are unfaithful and selfish or even indifferent in the midst of life and its events.

But do not let time and indifference necessitate an awakening that might be more horrendous, but awaken in gratitude and adhere to the demands of the Lord your God to love one another and He Himself with all your might.

For all things, He makes us ready. St. Padre Pio suffered the transverberation of his heart before the wounds in his hands and feet appeared, and the even more terrible wound of the place which chafed the shoulder of the Lord.

He participated in Jesus, in ways we cannot fathom, and we cannot comprehend how such events could take place and how the subject of the reception of that participation could endure what the Lord asked him to endure, and which were his constant companions for fifty years. So much love is beyond our comprehension; both the love of Padre Pio and the love of Jesus, who invited him so fully to the participatioon in His redemptive crucifixion.\

We celebrate His Sacred Heart, the Prescious Blood and His holy passion in the months of the year; we are invited to see and to an extent, participate somehow in these events as we confront His presence in our hearts during our life with Him in this world. We may be far more lowly than the humble friar, but I assure you, He has enkindled an equal love in them that ought to be respected and revered as the Lord Himself. 

Each of you knows what part of His Person you encompass in your life, so that in your humility, you honor the Lord and your companions by your holiness which He has made distinctive to each of you so that you glorify Him as well, and each other at the same time, for His glory emanates from each of us whether we are aware or not.

Hopefully, the events in our being will bind us through love of Him and through our love, to one another so that the Lord is recognised by everyone. My prayer is that it should be so, and we might venerate one another as brothers and sisters in the Holy Family as the letter to the Ephesians intimates