Thomas Sunday--The Lord Uses Weakness to Win the Most Astounding Victories

My Lord, and my God!

Today, in the Gospel, we hear the Holy Apostle Thomas make an acclamation, which is also a profession of faith. He declares, “My Lord and my God!” on seeing the Risen Lord Jesus, and inspecting the wounds in the Lord’s hands, feet and side.  In this acclamation, He gives two titles to Jesus: he calls Him Lord and God.  The first of these titles is unremarkable, since the disciples of Jesus had called Him “Lord” many times in the course of the previous three years of His public ministry.  But, it is the second name, paired with “Lord” which is so meaningful on this eighth day of the Resurrection.  St. Thomas professes that the Lord Jesus is God.  None had yet made this confession.  It is true that Simon Peter, earlier in the Lord’s ministry, in the area of Caesarea Philippi had professed that the Lord Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, but never to this point had there been such a clear profession of the divinity of the Christ.

Christ’s victory: A human victory 

     St. Thomas’ profession of faith is only possible because he not only recognizes who Jesus is, but he also realizes what Jesus has done.  In this moment is born the branch of theology, which we call “Christology” because it is concerned with the identity of the Christ.  Thomas realizes, as he stands before the Risen Christ and probes His wounds, that God has won a tremendous victory for us over Death, Sin, Satan and Hell. What is wondrous, however, is that this victory is not a “divine” victory.  It has not been effected by the majesty of God, but by the lowliness of human nature.  God, in winning this victory, did not take up the weapons of Divinity, but took up the shattered weapons of human nature in order to wage war against the Evil One, for He became like us in everything except sin.

God uses the weak

     Naturally, we remember the way in which the Prophet of God Elias proved the existence and majesty of God in the time of the Old Testament.  In those days, God’s People, Israel, was afflicted with a mass apostasy.  Many had abandoned the worship of the true God for the worship of worthless idols; for they were following the example of the wicked king Ahab and his notoriously evil wife Jezebel.  The Holy Prophet Elias called all the leaders of Israel to a meeting to take place on the summit of Mt. Carmel.  There, he challenged the worshippers of the false gods to a contest.  Both he and the idol-worshippers were to build altars and lay the sacrifices on the altars, but they were not to light the fires.  Instead, everything was to be prepared, and then the worshippers of idols were to call upon their gods, while Elias would pray to the God of Israel. The God Who answered with fire would be recognized as the true God.  But the Prophet Elias went further; he took enormous amounts of water and poured them over the wood, the altar and the sacrifice. Again and again, he had more water brought, until the sacrifice and the wood on the altar were completely drenched.  In the meantime, the worshippers of the false gods were praying to their gods to no avail.  Then, Elias prayed to the God of Israel. Fire descended from heaven and consumed the sacrifice, and, along with it, all the water, the wood and even the stones of the altar itself.  The majesty of God descended into the worthless nature of drenched flesh and wood, and won a victory over Satan and his angels, which reclaimed the souls of the people of Israel.

     In fact, during the long ages of expectation for the Messiah, God made a habit of choosing that which was weak and worthless in the eyes of the world in order to win the most astounding victories. We remember, for example, the victory, which the Lord won through Gideon against Midian.  We learn about this marvelous victory in the Book of Judges.  “The Lord said to Gideon: “The people that are with you are many, and Midian shall not be delivered into their hands; lest Israel should glory against me, and say: I was delivered by my own strength.  Speak to the people, and proclaim in the hearing of all: Whosoever is fearful and timorous, let him return. So two and twenty thousand men went away from Mount Gilead and returned home, and only ten thousand remained.  The Lord said to Gideon: The people are still too many. Bring them to the waters, and there I will try them: and of whom I shall say to you, “This one shall go with you,” let him go: whom I shall forbid to go, let him return.  When the people came down to the waters, the Lord said to Gideon: They that shall lap the water with their tongues, as dogs are wont to lap, you shall set apart by themselves: but they that shall drink, bowing down their knees, shall be on the other side.  And the number of them that had lapped water, casting it with the hand to their mouth, was three hundred men: and all the rest of the multitude had drunk kneeling. The Lord said to Gideon: By the three hundred men that lapped water, I will save you, and deliver Midian into your hand.” The phrase “as dogs are wont to lap” is a bit confusing, since the text later refers to the same men as having carried the water to their mouths with their hands.  However, the Father of the Church Macrobius Siccus connects this episode with the well-known Egyptian proverb, “the dog drinks and runs away.” In other words, it was not so much the manner in which the men drank, which resembled dogs, but the haste with which they drank.  The dogs of Egypt drink quickly and run away for fear of being eaten by the crocodiles, which lurk in the water. Siccus infers from this that the men chosen were not only a small number, but were also the most cowardly men.

All these victories are a preparation for the “victory of victories”

     All of these astounding victories, which the Lord worked against every human expectation, were preparation for the victory of victories, which He Himself would win over Satan and Death, through the weapon of our weak, shattered and decrepit nature.  Human nature, which had before been so humiliated by its long slavery to the Devil, could no longer be despised, because by an astounding reversal weakness and decrepitude became the instrument of humiliation for the enemies of God and man.

Christ’s victory: Our victory

     How can we personally share in this great victory? Through the Mysteries of Christ, His victory becomes our victory.  In Baptism, Repentance and the Eucharist, our flesh becomes the flesh of the Crucified.  Our weak and humiliated human nature becomes His nature, victorious over the Devil.  Our sufferings become His sufferings.  Our death becomes His death, and our resurrection becomes His Resurrection. 

     Today as we gaze upon the Eucharist, like St. Thomas, we look upon the flesh of the Risen Christ, the weapon, which God has chosen to end our slavery and humiliation.  Let us each acclaim Him: “My Lord and my God.”