Dare to Believe

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When Jesus appears to the apostles after His resurrection, Thomas isn’t with them. Thomas refuses to believe that they’ve seen Jesus alive and even insists, “Until I see the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” The following week Jesus shows Thomas His wounds and Thomas exclaims, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus says, “Have you come to believe because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

First, we might ask, “Why wasn’t Thomas with them?” Maybe he was afraid of what would happen to him if he was with the others and their hiding place was discovered. Maybe he wanted to grieve alone. We don’t know. What we do know is that the rest of the apostles stayed together; they understood that they needed each other. By distancing himself from them, Thomas not only missed out on their support but, even worse, he missed out on seeing Jesus alive at that time.

The apostles knew, as we know, that community is important. When we distance ourselves from others or don’t feel part of a community, we miss out on the support that a community can provide. We also miss out on seeing how the power of God’s Love, which is infinitely stronger than human love, can work wonders when we open our hearts to Him.

Also, when Christ said, ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed’ He was talking about you and me. We’d like to think we would have believed the apostles. So this might be a good time to ask ourselves, ‘Do I really believe that the Lord is alive, and lives in me, today? Do I believe that His Love for me is more profound, and therefore more powerful, than any human love I could ever experience? Do I have the courage to invite this Love to permeate my soul; direct all I think, say, and do; and transform me and help me to become the person He created me to be?’ 

We don’t see Jesus walking around now. It takes courage to believe that He’s alive, that He’s alive in us, and that He wants to take over our hearts. It takes courage because belief demands a response. When we dare to believe He’s present with us, right now, and we dare to open our hearts to Him, we dare to let ourselves be transformed by His Love.

Let’s ask our Lord to give us the courage to believe, deep in our hearts, that He’s alive – and act on that belief. 

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” – John 20:29

Let all I do be with You, for You, and because of You.

Thank you for reading my reflection.  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words!    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 

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P.S.

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