Saturday, December 21 : Saint Anthony of Padua

Thomas said to the Twelve: “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!” (Jn 20:25). The name ‘Thomas’ means ‘abyss’, for by his doubt he gained an even deeper understanding and became firmer in his faith. (…) It was not by chance but by divine decree that Thomas was absent and unable to believe what he heard. A splendid decree! Saintly doubt of the disciple! “Unless I see in his hands,” he said (Jn 20:25). He wished to see raised up the fallen tent of David, of which Amos had said: “On that day I will raise up the fallen tent of David; I will repair the breaches of its walls” (cf. Am 9:11). ‘David’ stands for the divinity; the ‘tent’, Christ’s own body in which the divinity was contained as in a tent, fallen, crushed in death and the Passion. The breaches in the walls stand for the wounds of his hands, feet and side. These are the wounds that the Lord would rebuild in his Resurrection. It was of them that Thomas said: “Unless I put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe!” The Lord, understanding, did not want to leave his honest disciple, who was to become a vessel of election, in doubt. And so he removed the smoke of doubt from his mind, in an act of kindness, just as he removed the blindness of infidelity from Paul. “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe” Then Thomas said to him: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:27-28)

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team