From divinumofficium:
| Oratio V. Dóminus vobíscum. R. Et cum spiritu tuo. Orémus. Præsta, quaesumus, omnípotens Deus: ut, qui paschália festa perégimus, hæc, te largiénte, móribus et vita teneámus. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, Filium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. R. Amen. | V. The Lord be with you. R. And with thy spirit. Let us pray. Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who have celebrated the Paschal Feast, may, by Thy bounty, retain its fruits in our daily habits and behavior. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. R. Amen. |
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| Doubting Thomas by Guercino, circa 1650 |
From arsorandi:
Gospel - St. John, 20, 19-31
From
The Liturgical Year
by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.
From
The Liturgical Year
by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.
We have said enough about St. Thomas’ incredulity;
let us now admire his faith. His fault has taught us to examine and condemn our
own want of faith; let us learn from his repentance how to become true
believers. Our Lord, who had chosen him as one of the pillars of his Church, has
been obliged to treat him with an exceptional familiarity: Thomas avails himself
of Jesus’ permission, puts his finger into the sacred wound, and immediately he
sees the sinfulness of his past incredulity. He would make atonement, by a
solemn act of faith, for the sin he has committed in priding himself on being
wise and discreet: he cries out, and with all the fervor of faith: My Lord and
my God!
Observe, he not only says that Jesus is his Lord, his Master, the same who chose him as one of his disciples: this would not have been faith, for there is no faith where we can see and touch. Had Thomas believed what his brother-Apostles had told him, he would have had faith in the Resurrection; but now he sees, he has experimental knowledge of the great fact; and yet, as our Lord says of him, he has faith. In what? In this, that his Master is God. He sees but the humanity of Jesus, and he at once confesses him to be God. From what is visible, his soul, now generous and repentant, rises to the invisible: “Thou art my God!” Now, O Thomas! Thou art full of faith! The Church proposes thee to us, on thy feast, as an example of faith. The confession thou didst make on this day is worthy to be compared with that which Peter made, when he said: “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God!” By this profession, which neither flesh nor blood had revealed to him, Peter merited to be made the rock whereon Christ built his Church: thine did more than compensate thy former disbelief; it gave thee, for the time, a superiority over the rest of the Apostles, who, so far at least, were more taken up with the visible glory, than with the invisible divinity, of their risen Lord.
Observe, he not only says that Jesus is his Lord, his Master, the same who chose him as one of his disciples: this would not have been faith, for there is no faith where we can see and touch. Had Thomas believed what his brother-Apostles had told him, he would have had faith in the Resurrection; but now he sees, he has experimental knowledge of the great fact; and yet, as our Lord says of him, he has faith. In what? In this, that his Master is God. He sees but the humanity of Jesus, and he at once confesses him to be God. From what is visible, his soul, now generous and repentant, rises to the invisible: “Thou art my God!” Now, O Thomas! Thou art full of faith! The Church proposes thee to us, on thy feast, as an example of faith. The confession thou didst make on this day is worthy to be compared with that which Peter made, when he said: “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God!” By this profession, which neither flesh nor blood had revealed to him, Peter merited to be made the rock whereon Christ built his Church: thine did more than compensate thy former disbelief; it gave thee, for the time, a superiority over the rest of the Apostles, who, so far at least, were more taken up with the visible glory, than with the invisible divinity, of their risen Lord.
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