Brave Thomas

    This coming Sunday’s Gospel entry is the well-known story of “Doubting Thomas”.  But let’s see if we can’t help out old Thomas and show that he was actually "Brave Thomas".

    OK, so the Gospel story is that soon after Jesus killed, the Apostles are hiding out, and “the doors were locked” for fear of themselves being attacked for having been associated with Jesus.  At that point, while they’re all locked up, Jesus comes to the Apostles and speaks with them.   

    But for some unknown reason, Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus visited that first time.  And Thomas would not believe that it had been Jesus who had visited until Jesus came a second time and Thomas got to put his fingers in Jesus’ wounds.  So, for millennia, our friend Thomas has been called “Doubting Thomas”.  I get it.  Even Jesus kind of reads Thomas the riot act (gently) over this.

    But when my son was about 10 or so, he had a different take on Thomas.  My son observed, “Sounds like Thomas was the brave one, the only one willing to go out when the others were all locked up and scared.”  Out of the mouths of babes. 

    So what do I say? I say any time you hear someone say “Doubting Thomas”, you say, “Oh, you mean Brave Thomas?”  

    What’s the point?  How often have we judged others wrongly because we didn’t look at the larger picture of what they had done?  How often are we quick to judge because we only look at one part of how a person has acted? 

    So let’s do our best to look at the entirety of other people’s actions, and not just pick one aspect of what they have done.  Let’s see who else in our lives is actually a “Brave Thomas”.

- The Older Brother