Sunday, March 30, 2008 Lagura: Beyond sight and beyond hearing By Fr. Flor Lagura, SVD in the service of the word
IT was Holy Week in Baguio City, and as temporary chaplain for the Blue Sisters--officially called the Holy Spirit Sisters-I had the opportunity to serve them spiritually in their convent on a hill.
Also I had the privilege of giving the sacraments of the anointing of the sick and the viaticum: literally a communion to “go with you” on your journey home to the Father, to Sr. Elizabeth, a frail and old missionary nun from Germany. Despite the pain in her wrinkled and fragile face of a ninety-year old, one could notice the beauty of a soul in that woman who spent her life-time loving God and serving His people.
On Easter Sunday morning while we were celebrating mass, all of a sudden the lights in the chapel blinked. Initially, we thought that it was one of those frequent summer brownouts that plagued the summer capital of our nation. Later, however, when sister superior went to see Sr. Elizabeth, she came back to report to the rest of the community that Sr. Elizabeth had journeyed home early that Easter morning.
What a fitting reward for a religious sister who kept faith from what she learned from her parents and teachers about the Lord. What a beautiful example of a faith that was nurtured even if she, like many of us, could not see and touch the Lord as we normally would want to as human beings. This is because we ordinarily would like to see pieces of clear evidence before we lend credence to something very important to our lives.
Fortunately for many of us, the support of a community-whether our own family which is the domestic church, our parish, our local church or a religious community-can provide the support we need to strengthen and nurture a faith based on what we hear about the Lord.
Unfortunately, Thomas-following his all too human craving for evidence to “see with his own eyes the nail wounds in his hands and put his fingers into them-doubted that the Lord had truly risen. Moreover, he absented himself from the group of apostles thereby depriving himself of the community of believers even though their own faith was at that that shaky.
In his zealous care to look for those whom he had called, Jesus the Risen Lord appeared to Thomas to removed his doubt and to elicit from him the confession of faith saying, “My Lord and my God!” Sr. Elizabeth as well as billions of others who have not seen with their eyes or touched with their fingers the body of the Risen Lord still has come to believe. They dared to believe, and for this they are called blessed.
“Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger into my hands. Put your hand into my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” Then Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God.’” Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. But blessed are those who haven’t seen me and yet believe.” John 20:27-29
