Today, July 3
Feast of the Day
No feast of the day
Saint of the Day
Readings of the Day
Letter to the Ephesians 2:19-22.
Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Psalms 117(116):1.2.
Praise the LORD, all you nations; glorify him, all you peoples! For steadfast is his kindness for us, and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 20:24-29.
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
Daily Reflection
Thomas said to the Twelve: "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe!" (Jn 20:25). The name 'Thomas' means 'abyss', for by his doubt he gained an even deeper understanding and became firmer in his faith. (…) It was not by chance but by divine decree that Thomas was absent and unable to believe what he heard. A splendid decree! Saintly doubt of the disciple! "Unless I see in his hands," he said (Jn 20:25). He wished to see raised up the fallen tent of David, of which Amos had said: "On that day I will raise up the fallen tent of David; I will repair the breaches of its walls" (cf. Am 9:11). 'David' stands for the divinity; the 'tent', Christ's own body in which the divinity was contained as in a tent, fallen, crushed in death and the Passion. The breaches in the walls stand for the wounds of his hands, feet and side. These are the wounds that the Lord would rebuild in his Resurrection. It was of them that Thomas said: "Unless I put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe!" The Lord, understanding, did not want to leave his honest disciple, who was to become a vessel of election, in doubt. And so he removed the smoke of doubt from his mind, in an act of kindness, just as he removed the blindness of infidelity from Paul. "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe" Then Thomas said to him: "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20:27-28)