Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Today, in honoring the Apostle St. Thomas, we honor true repentance,
for St. Ambrose tells us that during this eight-day period,
St. Thomas persisted in the sins of pride, obstinacy, irreverence, presumption,
that is, because he proposed to dictate to the Lord of all goodness the law,
that is, by demanding that he put his hands in his side and also into the nail marks,
and also for persisting in unbelief for eight days.
And St. Ambrose said this was a particularly painful sin,
to our Lord and his Most Holy Mother,
because he persisted in that unbelief for eight days in the presence of the Mother of God,
who was at that time constantly beseeching him to come to belief.
But when St. Thomas is confronted by the Lord this day,
we see the power of repentance,
for from that day forward, St. Thomas would become known as the Apostle who was always late for his labors,
for he would go out to the most tough, tough of all evangelicals,
to the most difficult of all people and spiritual territory.
Most especially, he would ultimately go to India.
And if we need to understand, just what this land was,
for it was unlike many of the pagan lands.
Indeed, some of the common terms we use in our own language come from that culture.
For instance, the word thug.
We don't often associate that a thug at the time of St. Thomas,
when he went to that land, was one who preyed on travelers.
That is, any foreigner who traveled to that land,
to that land was the prey of the thug. It was a form of human sacrifice, and it was done to simply
cover up the stealing of the riches that the traveler may had brought. And hence, we often
refer to young thieves as thugs. That is a leftover from this culture. But St. Thomas would no longer
hesitate, for he makes that profound profession of faith today, my Lord and my God. So he sees
in Christ something sacred. That is, he declares here the sacred humanity of Christ, that in
looking at the man, Christ, he is also looking at his God. And it was that truth that he would bring
to all lands, and that truth that he would try to instill in all the hearts of all the souls
throughout the world. And ultimately, it would cost him that greatest of all sacrifices. He would
give up his life to a most heinous, modest death. And so,
he would make reparation for his pride, for his obstinacy, for his irreverence,
for his presumption, and for his persisting in unbelief in the most extraordinary way.
St. Thomas would suffer great penances for the rest of his life. Most especially, he would have
to suffer not being present when the mother of God was assumed body and soul into heaven.
He would have to wait to see her, but then his waiting would be rewarded, for it would not be
a final sacrifice. He would have to wait until the end of his life, and then his waiting would be
a final sacrifice. He would have to wait until the end of his life, and then his waiting would be
a final sacrifice. He would have to wait until the end of his life, and then his waiting would be
not seeing of her in this life, but St. Thomas now beholds her for all eternity in the life to
come. And it is because he truly repented. And so, we see the power of the sacramental system,
for St. Thomas, in confessing his sins and repenting of them, becomes one of the great,
greatest of apostles, not fearing to go anywhere to declare what he declares today,
my Lord and my God, and to teach that. But also, we must also realize,
that St. Thomas also failed to recognize the Apostles,
for it was the Apostles who brought the word first to him.
We have seen the Lord, they tell them,
and St. Thomas himself, called to be Apostle, would not accept their word.
And so we learn how often we must remind Catholics
that they must accept the words of the Apostles.
That is, they must show reverence to the Holy Father
and to all bishops united with him.
They must no longer persist in their unbelief
and their presumption.
For presumption, in the form that St. Thomas manifested it,
is one of the common sins of our day.
And indeed, it goes right along with the irreverence.
It is known as the heresy of modernism,
in which we presume to tell Christ who he is and what he is
and how we are to behave.
And so, in this form of sin,
many Catholics are making of the Catholic faith
something that it is not,
but creating their own religion,
showing their pride and their obstinacy
and their irreverence towards the mysteries of Christ.
And so, let us ask St. Thomas this day
that he may intercede for us
so that the heresy of modernism
may depart from the mystical body of Christ,
so that we, like St. Thomas,
may all go forth teaching of our Lord and our God,
but teaching as he has revealed himself,
not presuming to know what Christ taught,
but turning to the Church to find out precisely
what he has taught, how he has revealed himself,
and then going forth, giving that truth to the whole world.
And it is not necessary that we understand fully
the truths of our holy Catholic faith,
for we have all of this life to try to penetrate them
deeper and deeper and deeper,
knowing that one day we will know them
in a most extraordinary way,
by way of the beatific vision.
Indeed, if we were to understand fully every mystery
of our faith in this life,
then, as it were, we would not really be exercising
an act of faith, for faith simply means
that we believe what is often unseen to us
by the use of our reason,
but we believe it solely because Christ has revealed it,
and then we try to understand it a little better
each and every day of our lives,
so that we may put that faith into practice,
as St. Thomas would immediately begin
to do after the moment of his repentance,
and his labors would be rewarded,
and ultimately, again, he would pay that ultimate price,
that price that shows he truly did believe
that Christ was his Lord and his God,
and he was unwilling to lose that love
that Christ gave to give him,
and so he would depart from this life
by way of a modest death,
in order that he may take up his life again
for all eternity in heaven, and ultimately, that is,
the message of the Apostles,
every man, woman, and child that God has created
is a unique man, a sacred man,
and an unrepeatable man, or woman, or child,
and so, they are called to a dignity
beyond the happiness that this life can offer,
because they are called to union with this same God
for all eternity in heaven,
and so, let us strive this day, most especially,
to ask St. Thomas to intercede for us
in our prayer,
our unbelief so that as the Lord tells us we will no longer persist in the unbelief but we will put
the authentic Catholic faith into practice no matter what it may cost us in regards to being
counterculture for indeed we should rejoice if we are accused of being counterculture because we
live in a culture that is so deprived of any knowledge of God so deprived of any notion that
St. Thomas says today indeed institutionally we observe that the most strict of all Protestant
observance allows three forms of baptism only one of which is valid and that just expresses
a deeper and deeper problem that they do not truly believe that he is the Lord and
their God that Jesus Christ is more than just a man because he is also God and so
let us
strive
in some way to show forth the world that love of Christ
so that our counterculture-ness can be manifested
in bringing to our land, into the lands of all the nations,
the culture of Christ, the kingdom of Christ
that St. Thomas and all the apostles would labor so earnestly
to establish shortly after the time of our Lord
in order to pave that way for what would become known as Christendom.
And so, after Christendom had departed from the land,
we have much to labor for.
And so, let us, like St. Thomas, always be late for our labors,
but let us always pray that we are laboring for the Lord,
that we are laboring for Him and striving always to understand
more deeply and more profoundly.
And let us not assume that St. Thomas, as St. Irenaeus tells us,
went through with that most vile suggestion
that unless he placed his hands in the side
and his hands in the feet,
St. Thomas, immediately upon seeing them,
St. Irenaeus tells us, repented.
And indeed, he did not in his shame even step forward
to go through with what he demanded.
And so, he immediately dropped to his knees
and apologized to the Lord for his unbelief
and to the Most Holy Mother of God
for persisting in her presence for eight days in his unbelief.
And so, let us this day turn to Mary Most Holy
as St. Thomas would do
in order that she truly becomes our mother,
that she truly stands behind us and strengthens us
as we seek to establish
not the modern culture of unbelief,
of irreverence, of presumption,
and all the sins that St. Thomas had committed
prior to his conversion,
but let us strive that they may truly again embrace the Christ
so that all mankind declares that same thing of Him,
my Lord and my God.
Amen.
© BF-WATCH TV 2021
© BF-WATCH TV 2021