Lulu Cooks and Tells: Doubting thomas

1. Prayer

Heavenly Father,
I come to You in my uncertainty. My mind is clouded with questions, and I feel unsure of which step to take. Please forgive me for letting doubt take hold of my heart. Grant me the wisdom to discern Your path and the courage to trust in Your plan, even when I cannot see the way forward. Calm my anxieties, replace my fears with faith, and lead me into Your peace.
In Your holy name, I pray. Amen."

2. MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/cyMxWXlX9sU?si=XA5NMW1eDTJXwtv_

3. SONG

https://youtu.be/kaqd4-5mhcc?si=H5bOwgkwxiEnWaP3

4. NARRATIVE

Franciscan mystic Richard Rohr teaches that doubt and faith are not opposites, but correlative terms. Rather than dismissing "Doubting Thomas" as a cautionary tale, Rohr values Thomas's refusal to accept a forced faith, teaching that honest, questioning doubt is a necessary doorway to true, contemplative transformation.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Rohr writes that people of great faith often suffer bouts of great doubt because their understanding of God continues to grow. In his teachings, he emphasizes several key aspects regarding Thomas’s famous skepticism: [1]

Honest Unknowing: Rohr stresses that Thomas’s demand to see the wounds was an authentic, firsthand desire to experience truth rather than blindly accepting secondhand testimony. To Rohr, nothing about Thomas's faith felt forced. [1, 2, 3]
Wounds and Connection: Rohr often suggests that we are all "Doubting Thomas" in the places of our unhealed wounds. Thomas's encounter teaches us to bring our whole, wounded, and doubting selves into the room, as Jesus simply invited him to show up and be honest. [1]
A Journey of Transformation: Rohr uses the framework Order → Disorder → Reorder. Thomas’s initial certainty was disrupted by the crucifixion, his mind wrestled in the disorder of doubt, and ultimately, this process reordered his understanding as he cried out, "My Lord and my God!" [1, 2]

For a deeper dive into his philosophy on "unknowing," you can explore the full Center for Action and Contemplation Meditation on the subject. [1]

Field Hospital on the Edge of the Battlefield
Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Francis of Assisi taught us the importance of living close to the poor, the marginalized, the outcasts in society. The outer poverty, injustice, and absurdity around us mirror our own inner poverty, injustice, and absurdity. The poor man or woman outside is an invitation to the poor man or woman inside. As you nurture compassion and sympathy for the brokenness of things, encounter the visible icon of the painful mystery in “the little ones,” build bridges between the inner and outer, learn to move between action and contemplation, then you’ll find compassion and sympathy for the brokenness within yourself.

Each time I was recovering from cancer, I had to sit with my own broken absurdity as I’ve done with others at the jail or hospital or sick bed. The suffering person’s poverty is visible and extraverted; mine is invisible and interior, but just as real. I think that’s why Jesus said we have to recognize Christ in the least of our brothers and sisters. It was for our redemption, our liberation, our healing—not just to “help” others and put a check on our spiritual resume.

I can’t hate the person on welfare when I realize I’m on God’s welfare. It all becomes one truth; the inner and the outer reflect one another. As compassion and sympathy flow out of us to any marginalized person for whatever reason, wounds are bandaged—both theirs and ours.

Thomas, the doubting apostle, wanted to figure things out in his head. He had done too much inner work, too much analyzing and explaining. He always needed more data before he could make a move. Then Jesus told Thomas he must put his finger inside the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side (John 20:27). Then and only then did Thomas begin to understand what faith is all about.

Pope Francis is encouraging a church of doubting Thomases when he tells us that “the church seems like a field hospital” [1] on the edge of the battlefield (as opposed to a country club of saved people) and the “clergy should smell like their sheep” (rather than thinking they smell better). [2] If this could happen, it would change just about everything that we have called church up to now.

Gateway to Silence:
Be still and still moving.

References:
[1] Pope Francis, Address to members of the Focolare Movement on September 26, 2014. See full text at https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/september/documents/papa-francesco_20140926_movimento-focolari.html
[2] Pope Francis, With the Smell of the Sheep: Pope Francis Speaks to Priests, Bishops, and other Shepherds (Orbis Books: 2017).