Doubting God takes people away from him. Doubting received wisdom can bring people closer to God as it did for Thomas shown here by Caravaggio. Our personal faith comes through a disclosure of God’s reality in Jesus. This revelation, like the sun, can only be seen in its own light and no one else’s. That being said, what God discloses needs working out intellectually.
On this feast of the Apostle Thomas we can focus either on his questioning or believing for doubting Thomas is also believing Thomas. His profession of Christ’s divinity resounds down the ages, ‘My Lord and my God’.
To make a compromise let’s put it another way and think about doubt in both its positive and negative aspects.
Doubting God takes people away from him. Doubting received wisdom can bring people closer to God as it did for Thomas.
Our personal faith comes through a disclosure of God’s reality in Jesus. This revelation, like the sun, can only be seen in its own light and no one else’s.
That being said what God discloses needs working out intellectually.
Orthodox writer Anthony Bloom has helpful wisdom here. A former scientist he saw the value of scientific doubting of models of reality and how such doubting presses knowledge forwards. He writes: ‘Unless you are prepared to see reality and your own thoughts and the thoughts of others with keen interest, with courage, but with the certainty that the last word is not doubt, not perplexity and not bewilderment, but that it is discovery then you will be wasting your time’.
Many people waste time and energy through double-mindedness. As Christians we shouldn’t be double-minded in our loyalty towards God but we should be eager to look at every side of our human experience.
As St Anselm wrote centuries ago credo ut intelligam – I believe so that I may understand. Once we believe we should expect to discover more understanding.
A thousand difficulties don’t make a doubt in the sense of disloyalty to our Lord. Our difficulties are among his challenging and deepening gifts. If we let them they can become pathways to discovering a fuller vision of the wonder of God and his creation.
With St Thomas may our questioning lead us always to a fuller profession of Christ as our Lord and our God.
Lord we don’t see the full picture of you yet. Take our doubts and make them servants of a fuller vision of you. Amen
