When presented with the eye-witness account of the other apostles who had seen Jesus alive, St Thomas protested that unless he experienced physical evidence himself, he would not believe. He thus refused to accept the word of Our Lord Himself who had told the apostles that He would rise from the dead.

On being faced with the physical evidence he demanded, St Thomas immediately made an act of humility and faith, affirming not only the resurrection of Jesus but also His divinity. Today, many refuse not only to believe, but even to assess the evidence for Christ.

In our own faith, we must not limit ourselves to the horizon of what we are comfortable with, still less the limit of what might seem acceptable in a culture which generally dismisses the supernatural. The attitude of the magi is the model for us: “falling down, they adored him”; that is the reasonable and proportionate response to the presence of the living God made man.

Our Lord has compassion on our weakness, even when it is directly insulting to Him, as in the case of doubting His word. St Thomas was given the grace to take the Gospel to India (he landed in what is now called Kerala) and to found the Church there, which exists and thrives today. In His ultimate witness to the truth of Christ, He laid down his life as a martyr. Therefore we should not allow our past sins to burden us unduly, but use their forgiveness as a further motive for loving Our Lord more generously.