God wants to bring each one of us a proposition: to make our faith to be reborn! We are celebrating the Martyrdom of St. Thomas and only through the Holy Spirit is this faith going to be reborn and thus a moment will arrive that like this saint we are going to say: “My Lord and my God, I believe, increase my faith.”
We need to desire a durable heart in following Jesus Christ. Independent of our age, we need to have courage and be conscious that we are in the millennium of martyrs, where the Christians are called to give their life for Jesus Christ. In 2012, more than 200,000 Christians were martyred, brothers, this is true. Yesterday, for example, a priest in Syria was murdered for being a Christian and loving Jesus Christ, he was in a convent hidden and the Syrian rebels encountered him and killed him.
The Love of Jesus Christ leads to a total attitude of surrender. At times we question God, being unfaithful to his love. We are opening loopholes for the action of the enemy in our lives, how many Christians in the world are giving their lives for Christ?
The first country that Thomas evangelized was Syria, the country where this priest was killed. It was there that the people were taught by the words of Thomas to love and to give their lives for others, however, these same people forgot this.
In the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of St. John, Jesus knows that He is going to die, but through love and knowing the project of the Father, He went to Bethany to encounter Mary and Martha, sisters of Lazarus. the attitude of Peter, when Jesus revealed that he was going to Jerusalem, to suffer, to be killed and to resurrect, was “Away from this Lord,” but the Lord said: “Away from me Satan.” Now notice the attitude of Thomas: “Let’s go too to die with Him,” (John 11:16)
The most important thing for us is that we need to make today the day where we never separate ourselves from Jesus Christ. It was the decision of Thomas: Let go and if needed die with the Master. This is the question of decision. Or maybe where He was, we should go. This is the Christian life in total dependence on Christ. Our life should be lived with Jesus, as the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI says.
The Lord calls us to evaluate our life and if we have followed Him or interested in following him, He can give us the ability for otherwise I am not capable of going to the end. There is a decision in the life of Thomas and we should imitate it.
“Do not let your hearts be trouble, Believe in God and believe in me. There are many dwellings in the house of my Father. It it was not this, I would have told you, because I am going to prepare a place for you. And when I have prepared a place for you, I will return and bring you with me, in order that where I am you may also be. And where I am going you know the way. “Thomas said to Jesus: ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?” (John 14:1-4)
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Thomas empties himself, for he did not want to encounter answers in himself, but wants to encounter the answer in the Lord, that is: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It is a radical decision to accept to travel this road that the Lord indicates to us.
We should think of the decisions that we are making, in order that they may be in the will of God. Like maintaining life in the heart the call of hope to the point of embracing the cross and following Jesus. May we have the courage of Thomas to have the dream of following his Master. Young people what are your dreams? Brothers and sisters all passes, life does not exist outside of Jesus, all that lives outside is fleeting. Have the courage to risk.
What kind of option have you made? What is the meaning of your life? Are you only seeking power, or seeking to be recognized by men? How have you lived today in relation to the consequences of tomorrow. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
Fr. Roger Luis
translated from Portuguese