When we are feeling good we are happy and allow others to come near us. When we are feeling down or are in pain we tend to cut ourselves off from others – nobody wants a sore spot to be touched. We want it left alone. This is understandable but how can healing happen if we do not allow our wounds to be seen and touched?
At the centre of the Gospel today is an account, I think, of healing. At the centre of the ministry of Church, it seems to me, should be healing. We live in a time when many of us bear wounds of all sorts – physical, emotional, psychological, and wounds, perhaps, in our faith life.
Jesus has an incredible ability to understand the seasons of the human heart – especially the needs. In today’s Gospel we see, yet again how Jesus, with his insight into the heart, becomes a healer – physically, emotionally, psychologically and of faith wounds.
After the death of Jesus Thomas fled from company of the apostles. The atmosphere amongst them was tense. They were afraid – locked up in fear – behind walls, the Gospel says.
Thomas missed the first appearance of Jesus. He cannot believe the story that the others tell him. We need to watch carefully at how Jesus deals with pain. In truth Jesus is the one that was pierced. However, if we look closely enough, we notice that it is really the disciples (especially Thomas) who are the wounded ones. They are wounded by grief, loneliness, disillusionment, doubt and
despair.
Thomas, it seems, in his pain, wanted to be alone. No doubt the others, who stayed together in the upper room, dealt with their own pain in a different way – perhaps bickering or being short with each other. Most of us have “styles” we adapt to deal with our own hurt/pain. (You may want to consider yours today).
The important thing is not that we get hurt or that we struggle but rather how we cope or deal with hurt.
Do the hurts of our lives taint us so that we land up alone, bitter and twisted? Or, do they propel us to seek wellness, wholeness and life in its fulness?
