12 April 2026 -  Doubting Thomas

A week after Easter, the risen Christ appears again to his disciples. He enters the locked doors of the Upper Room and says to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he offers Thomas the opportunity to become a scientist not only to see the evidence but to handle it!

Strangely, Thomas doesn’t  take up the offer to touch the wounded hands and side. It was unnecessary. Thomas was the beneficiary of that mysterious gift which we call faith!

‘My Lord and my God!’ he says. He saw the risen Lord but he couldn’t see the living God. This was beyond the visible, beyond the sense of touch. It came from God himself and the mystery of what his Son achieved through his dying and rising again.

Unlike Thomas, we cannot see the risen Christ nor touch his wounded hands and side. The evidence we do have is the Gospel narrative which has been preserved down through the centuries.

And, of course, the amazing witness of those who have ‘not seen and yet have come to believe’. For two thousand years, the church has proclaimed the Easter Gospel and now a third of the world celebrates it too!

Our ancient churches which have stood in specific geographical landscapes for eight hundred years and more are eloquent signs of the church’s universal proclamation, ‘Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!’