“Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Doubting Thomas would have made a good jury foreman. Not easily swayed by the testimony of his friends, he was an independent thinker who insisted on carefully weighing the evidence. Christ’s reaction to his friend’s skepticism shows us that God respects our sincere efforts to find the truth.

Jesus had to have a special place in His heart for Thomas. It was Thomas who, on hearing that Christ was going to Bethany (just two miles outside of Jerusalem), had said, “Let us also go that we may die with Him.”

But once they reached Jerusalem, Thomas began to express doubts. At the Last Supper, when Christ said He was going ahead and expected His apostles to follow Him, Thomas questioned Him.

“Lord,” he asked, “We don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Being a skeptic at heart, Thomas may have wanted to know more. But he would have to wait for the truth to be revealed. Following the crucifixion, when the disciples gathered in the Upper Room, and his friends told him they had seen the Lord, he scoffed at their testimony. After all, he had witnessed the crucifixion with his own eyes.

Yet, Thomas kept coming back to the Upper Room. He may not have been faith-filled, but he was faithful to his friends. The entire city was laughing at the apostles, ridiculing their faith in Jesus. But Thomas kept coming back. He refused to forsake his friends.

A true friend is someone who believes in you when no one else will.

Eight days later, when Christ appeared again, Thomas confronted the Truth.

“Reach hither thy finger,” Jesus said to his friend, “and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing.”

What followed was the most intimate encounter with Christ recorded in the entire New Testament. Thomas placed his hands in the open wounds and uttered for the first time anywhere in the Gospel these words: “My Lord and my God.”

Up until that point, Jesus had been called a rabbi, a teacher, master and Lord. He had referred to Himself as the Good Shepherd, the Bread of Life and the true vine. But, Thomas was the first follower to unequivocally proclaim Christ’s divinity. In a single breath, Thomas went from cynic to convert.

Christ’s response to His friend reminds us that faith is a gift: “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

Each of us believes because someone else shared the gift of faith with us. It may have been a parent, priest or friend who brought us into the Church. Now it’s up to us to pass on what we have received to our friends.