My dear brothers and sisters in Christ our risen Redeemer:
When I was a Seminary student I had a part-time job as a janitor. One day I had to clean a vacated apartment while a young man who had immigrated to the U.S. from Russia was painting it. When he heard that I was studying to be a pastor he told me that he was an atheist. While a schoolboy in Russia, a teacher directed his class to close their eyes and pray to God for something that each one really wanted. After a few moments the teacher told them to open their eyes to see if what they had prayed for was there. When they did not see what they’d asked for, he declared: “You see! There is no god. If there was he would have answered your prayer.” In essence he was telling them: “Seeing is believing.”
That story makes me think of Doubting Thomas. He was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them on the first Easter evening. When they told him “that they had seen the Lord, he declared: ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.’(25) But a week later he was present when Christ appeared again. So Jesus said to him: “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”(27) When Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God!”(28) – Christ responded with words that have served as a personal benediction for us and so many others since that day. “Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”(29)