An incredible event is relayed in this Sunday’s Gospel. For some, incredible means ‘miraculous’ but for others it means ‘not credible, unbelievable.’ Jesus, last seen broken and expiring on the cross, appears alive to disciples. They receive it as miraculous. Jesus “stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” … he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced.” One disciple however, Thomas, was not present. When told of Jesus’ appearance, he responds from the ‘not credible or unbelievable’ perspective. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Thomas is not inclined toward belief and thus, when it comes to his friends’ certitude about the event, he doubts. Thomas comes to certitude about the event, but he begins as a skeptic. Truth plays an intriguing role in the philosophy of skeptics. Skeptics doubt humanity’s ability to make any claims to truth. This is especially applicable concerning statements of faith such as today’s Gospel when disciples assert Christ is Risen and Thomas doubts it. In science, skeptics practice suspending their judgment. They concern themselves with the physical world and value provable statements about it. Believers tend to concern themselves with the invisible world and value personal assertions about it. This contrast can have some people of faith and some people of science in opposition – but unnecessarily so. Another Thomas, Tomas Halik, is like his name sake in that he a skeptic – a man of science. Tomas Halik is also like his namesake in that he is a believer – a man of faith. Halik thinks Western culture mistakenly pits science and faith against each other. Halik suggests it is due to the fundamentalists of each field being exaggerated. He describes the fundamentalists as people who find parts but think they have discovered the whole. Fundamentalists do not seek the whole because they would find it a threat to their certitude about their ‘part.’ Biblical fundamentalists cling to a belief they have found certitude of faith and, oddly, seek their negative faith’s confirmation. On the other hand, genuine practitioners of each field , science and faith, seek truth and find it by embracing paradox. Paradox is the combination of seemingly absurd or contradictory propositions that when investigated are experienced as deeply true. The dedicated scientist and the affirming believer are thus both open to mystery. Both live in and ponder a world in which music and harmony are a seamless whole in both a dirge and a carousel . Both qualities give witness to a universe in which dying, as a seed into the ground or a healer into the wood, comes round again to living. They are drawn to wondering about the truth of it all.
“I go down to the edge of the sea. How everything shines in the morning light! The cusp of the whelk, the broken cupboard of the clam, the opened, blue mussels, moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred— and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split, dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks … First you figure out what each one means by itself, the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop full of moonlight. Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.” (Breakage – Mary Oliver)
Prayer: Spirit, may I always seek and find humanity’s breakages and wholeness.
Question: What is the paradox I am called to embrace?
April 23, 2017 Gospel John 20:19-31 2nd Sunday of Easter