[00:00] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[00:38] Our Lady, Queen of Apostles, St. Joseph, St. Thomas the Apostle, our patron saints and guardian angels, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today we celebrate St. Thomas the Apostle who brought the faith to the far corners of the world. As our Lord, we heard, it said, you know, St. Paul repeats what our Lord pretty much said to His apostles to go out to all the world and to proclaim, to teach all that He

[01:14] said and did, and to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. St. Thomas, you know, was given the grace to go all the way to India. You know, when we think of India, we don't think of it as being one of the places where the faith has been since apostolic times, but there is evidence, and there is the tomb of St. Thomas in India, and that there have been Christians there who pride themselves as being descendants of his, in the sense that he was their spiritual father who brought

[01:49] them the faith, you know, 2,000 years, almost 2,000 years ago when he came there to evangelize them. The vestment that I am wearing today is made in India, so we know that there is a strong Catholic tradition and culture in India. We need to pray for the Church in India because it is being persecuted by nationalist Hindus who think that India should be only for Hindus.

[02:21] So they're Hindus, but when it comes to religion, they're Hindonts. They don't like it if you're not preaching something other than Hinduism, but, you know, that's always been, and will always be the case. You know, they resisted St. Thomas, the, at that time was more, a lot of Buddhists there, and others, they resisted St. Thomas because he was preaching the new religion. And St. Francis Xavier encountered the same difficulties in his day when he went to Japan

[02:57] and to other places. The ones who were usually his opponents, or those who tried to resist his efforts were the old religions, the false religions, the promoters of falsehood who wanted to keep him from having access or to preach the truth. And it's going to be the same today of those who are promoting the false religions. They want to silence the Church, but we know that you can't chain the gospel.

[03:32] No one is made to know the truth, especially the divinely revealed truth. God has made us for Himself and wants His people to know what is necessary for their salvation and to receive what He has offered on the cross for them is salvation and eternal life. So today we honor St. Thomas who went from one who had no evidence, without evidence, to without doubt.

[04:04] And that was from the meditation that came today from Presentation Ministries about St. Thomas. You know, he was always the doubting Thomas. He could not believe unless he put his hands into the nail marks into the side of our Lord. And then, of course, our Lord blessed him with the opportunity to see Him and to do what he said he wished he could do.

[04:34] But St. Thomas, seeing our Lord before him, was so convinced. And I'm sure that's what made his preaching so effective when he went to India or wherever he would go besides there, but India seems to be the place he spent most of his time. I'm sure that was a convincing claim of his that he who was a doubter saw our Lord with his own eyes and put his hands into the wounds of a man who had been crucified and died on

[05:10] a cross but rose from the dead. So that we have the evidence of these great men of faith, the apostles, which our faith is built upon the foundation stones of the apostles. These men who were chosen by our Lord, they were not the cream of the crop. You know, even St. Paul says that they were the scum of the earth, the apostles, you know, in the sense that in the eyes of the world, they were nothing.

[05:44] And of course, they even did badly on Good Friday. But God chose them and raised them up and made them great witnesses to the faith. And so we have their witness and their apostolic succession to thank for bringing us the deposit of faith, even to our time in the 21st century, the deposit of faith, which does not and cannot

[06:18] change. Let us pray and ask especially today for the Church in India or wherever it is being persecuted, that the faithful will not grow weary or become discouraged, but even give greater witness and that as much as people try to suppress or hold down the Church, that it will continue to burst at the seams with new converts, with new children for God.

[06:50] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.