Jn 20:19-31
19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21[Jesus] said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. 23Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
24Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he 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.” 26Now 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.” 27Then 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.” 28Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
30Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book. 31But these are written that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
A Healthy Skepticism: When it comes to belief—not just religious belief but any kind of belief—most people fall into one of three groups: the gullible, the critical, and the skeptical. The gullible are those people who accept practically any statement as true, even statements which are extravagant or fantastic. They require very little evidence to believe. If you say your mother has green hair, they will accept your statement at face value and just marvel that they themselves have never met a person with green hair. The skeptics are the opposite. They mistrust people, ideas, statements, etc., in general and almost on principle. They doubt everything and everyone. If you show a photo of your mother having green hair and even explain that she dyed her hair green, they will still doubt your statement, question the authenticity of the photo, wonder why you are mentioning your mother’s hair in the first place, speculate about your sanity, and so on. Fortunately, most people fall into the group situated midway between these two extremes. They will be inclined to trust you up to a certain point, but they will require a minimum of evidence or explanation before accepting your statement about your mother’s green hair. They are critical, but moderately so. In the first group the people are not critical enough. In the second group they are excessively critical.
Jesus expected people to be critical of his teaching. As a rule he did not expect people to accept all his statements naively. On the contrary, he constantly appealed to their personal experience, their judgment, their opinion. Obviously, he expected his listeners to use their brains. He wanted intelligent, critical disciples, who would not accept just any statement of his without a minimum of evidence. Naturally, this evidence could be indirect, for example, his miraculous powers, his shining holiness, his great wisdom. But it was sufficient to warrant faith.
Today’s Gospel reading presents an extreme skeptic, Thomas. As such he is not a monster or a freak. In fact, he represents all those who, like him, are by nature and temperament suspicious of everyone and everything. And in that connection it is interesting to observe how Jesus deals with this sort of people. As we can see from today’s Gospel scene, Jesus accepts them as they are. Thomas demands to examine the marks of his wounds. Well and good. With utter meekness, Jesus submits to the tests imposed by Thomas. Only after Thomas drops his unreasonable demands does Jesus gently chide him. Oh, but the rebuke is so mild and indirect that it is hardly felt! “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Let this welcoming attitude of Jesus toward the naturally skeptic reassure those of us who belong to that category of people. Jesus does not reject them in the least. He just regrets that they are so hard to convince. Their overly distrustful nature makes them miss a lot of beautiful insights or discoveries. A healthy skepticism is good, but it must not exclude a sense of wonder and an openness to mystery.