with the feast of saint of saint thomas the apostle we are reminded of our
need to exercise our faith to believe in what we don't see to believe in those promises that
jesus gave to us based on his authority based on his holiness based on the miracles that he
performed in his life based on the self-sacrifice of jesus christ his his holiness how he lived
and lived a selfless life he didn't live for self-interest and he promised all these things
promised eternal life he promised that he would rise from the dead he promised that our sufferings
would be meritorious and rewarding he promised to guide the church into the whole truth and so we
believe all these things and we believe that he would rise from the dead and we believe that he
would rise from the dead and we believe that he would rise from the dead and we believe that he
based on the person of jesus christ and thomas but many of the other apostles didn't believe
in the resurrection fully and the other apostles were able to see jesus personally and
immediately sometime shortly after the resurrection but thomas did not and you
can see the divine plan there that god ordained that thomas not be there
with the apostles and so we believe that he would rise from the dead and we believe that he would
apostles to show us, to be an example to us of how we can be doubtful in our faith. And doubts are
not necessarily sins unless we entertain them, unless we doubt because of a lack of faith that
we should have in the promises of Jesus, which Thomas had. So he was at fault. He should have
believed in the resurrection, especially after all the apostles attested to it, but especially
because Jesus promised it. So he was culpable. And we would be too if we do not embrace all the
teachings of the church after all these centuries of our faith, our Catholic faith, and the example
of the saints. And so we are called to exercise our faith,
to believe, to believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ. And exercising our faith means to
make that effort, make that effort to pray, make that effort to believe, make that effort to love
Jesus Christ and all of his teachings. It's an effort. And that is, that takes love, that takes
an effort, that takes practicing our faith. And this is what faith is all about,
faith is all about love, reaching into our heart and exercising our heart, exercising our will,
exercising our intellect to love God, to serve him and put into practice his teachings. This
is what faith is all about. If we see, we know. If we see and we feel and touch, there's no,
there's very little, not necessarily that exercise of our faith.
And that love, but love causes us to exercise our faith, to practice it, to really exert it
throughout, throughout our practice of it. And the more we practice, the more we exercise our love,
the more we, more we love, the more we reach out to serve Jesus with all our heart and soul,
the stronger our faith gets and the more meritorious it is and the more love there is,
there. And this is the whole reason for faith. It's the whole purpose of faith so that we can
show our love for, for God in, in accepting all that he has taught us, accepting his person
and reaching out to him, yearning for him with our faith, yearning for him. And, and then
receiving that grace, grace and strength and power that God gives us to put into practice
his teachings.
To live for him, to live with him, to live in him in a life of faith. So let us ask St. Thomas to
strengthen, help us to strengthen our faith, to practice it, to love more and more strongly and
powerfully, putting into practice all that Jesus has taught us.
Support St. Thomas in preaching with rumors,
starting today.
Thank you.