Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen And Have Believed....

I am visiting our son Michael and his lovely wife Sonya in Raleigh NC this week. I went to our old parish, St. Andrew's, for the evening Mass. It was lovely- still decorated for Easter, and as always, everyone there is so nice-- friendly, and very prayerful, and reverent. Most stay for the entire song at the end of Mass, etc. It was really a nice thing to be back, if only for one day.

Anyway.  Father Thomas gave a lovely sermon about St. Thomas. He reminded us of the Gospel we had just heard, where Thomas said that unless he put his fingers into the nail marks in Jesus' hands and his hand into Jesus' side, he would not believe. Then of course, a week later, Jesus gently tells Thomas to put his finger into the nail marks, and his hand into His side. He wants Thomas to not only see, but BELIEVE. Christ says, "Blessed are those who have not seen, but believe!". Maybe we can answer our own unbelief sometimes with that Scripture passage. We haven't seen, but we can believe.

Father mentioned that Blaise Pascal, a famous scientist, mathematician and philosopher, pondered over the fact that there are doubters of Christ's Resurrection.  His answer to them in part, follows (I highly recommend that the entire piece be read as it is very interesting. I have linked the passage to the source I found it on - the passage I am quoting comes about two thirds down the page.)

Fifth and finally, the lives of the disciples were transformed such that they were willing to die for their conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead. After the crucifixion of Jesus, his followers were disheartened and depressed. The one who they had believed to be the Messiah, the promised Savior of the world, had died in the most dishonorable way possible, crucifixion. They scattered and fell away, but within weeks they were leaving their jobs, gathering together and committing themselves to proclaiming the Gospel that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God, who died on a cross to pay the penalty for sin and then was raised to life seen alive by them. From an earthly perspective, they had little to gain in return. They were often hungry, ridiculed, beaten and imprisoned. Ultimately, most of them were brutally executed in torturous ways. Why were they willing to proclaim this Gospel to their death? Because they were absolutely convinced that they had seen the resurrected Christ.

I found this explanation to be absolutely riveting. All the people who deny that the Shroud of Turin is real, who give whatever (false) reason that Christianity is not the Truth, cannot deny that countless people have died for their faith. Among those were many who saw, spoke to and ate with, touched, were healed by JESUS himself!  How can this be denied???

Blessed are they who have not SEEN but have BELIEVED!!!
(The painting at the bottom of this post is called "Stoning Of St. Stephen"  by Adam Elsheimer (1576-1610) )