Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen And Yet Have Believed.

FEAST OF SAINT THOMAS APOSTLE,

3 JULY

J.M.J.

Dear Father Thomas,

Happy feast day! Something very curious happened to me a few years ago. I was thinking about it when I decided to write you. What happened was that Father Martin Lucia and I went together to a spiritual retreat. As I had a bad cold and I wouldn't stop coughing, Father Martin suggested that I take a glass of cognac to help me sleep. I had not taken my alarm clock and I was worried, because if I had the drink I wouldn't be able to wake up to three in the morning for my Holy Hour with the Lord in the Holy Sacrament.

Father Martin assured me that God would find the way to wake me up, so I took the drink. Pum! At three o'clock I heard a strong blow followed by others on the door. Expecting to see Father Lucia, when I opened the door I was stunned to look down and see a dog in his place. The dog had entered the house, went up the stairs, had turned his back to the door and hit it with his tale until I get up to open it. Next morning I was told that the dog never entered the house.

I'm seating here thinking to myself. I God can use a dog to wake me up for my Holy Hour, Couldn't He use me, my dear Thomas, to bring you nearer to the Holy Sacrament? I want to continue writing you, typing my typewriter so loud as the dog hit my door, until for God's grace you begin to offer a Holy Hour every day and have perpetual adoration in your parish.

It's just a matter of faith, faith in that the Holy sacrament really is Jesus in person, here with us, in this same place and in this same moment! Your namesake didn't believe that Jesus had resurrected. "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." (Jn 20:25)

For this reason he's called 'Thomas The Incredulous'. Who is today Thomas The Incredulous? People believe in the Resurrection but, do they know where dwell the resurrected Lord? Today, Thomas The Incredulous is who do not believe that the Holy Sacrament is Jesus, our resurrected savior, with the power of his Resurrection, that spills abundant graces over all who reach near to his divine presence!

Many will say 'yes' they believe in his real presence. But faith is much more than an intellectual assertion. The belief is inseparable from the behavior. If we believe that Jesus is present in the Holy Sacrament, then we behave according our belief. We go to Him, we draw near Him, we run to Him. Saint Paul says: "Faith is the assurance of what we hope for; the proof of the realities that we don't see." (Hb 11:1).

If you could see Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, Thomas, won't you save an hour every day to spend with Him? If you could really see Him as He really is, won't you have perpetual adoration in your parish? It'd be impossible to stop it, because the entire world would come day and night to see Him and to stay with Him.

Imagine what would happen if Jesus became visible in the Holy Sacrament. The Whole world would like to take the first fly towards Philippines to visit your parish. And, wouldn't Jesus said to everyone what He said to the apostle Thomas?: "Because you see me, you believe. Blessed are those who don't see and yet, they believe." (Jn 20:29)

In the Gospel of today, Jesus appears to Thomas so he can believe that the Christ has resurrected. The most marvelous wonder of his love is that He didn't appear to you, my dear friend. Instead, Jesus waits for you in the Holy Sacrament. He wants you to go to Him by faith, in order to that for all eternity He could call you 'BLESSED'.

His love is too great to say: "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." (Jn 20:27)

You ought to believe that the Holy Sacrament is the same one that said these words to Thomas, the same Jesus that went through locked doors and that presented himself in the middle of the other apostles and said: "Peace be with you."

This is the peace that Jesus wants you to have in his Holy Hours. The experience of this peace is much better than if Jesus would show you his wounds. His wounds in the Holy Sacrament are not longer horrible. His wounds are now the beauty of Heaven. These wounds shine brighter than the sun. These wounds are a fountain of grace.

Jesus wants to give you the fullness of these graces, for having gone to Him by faith. For this reason is much better for you that He does not show his visible wounds, as he did to the apostle Thomas, because He wants to spill over you the invisible graces of these wounds with all the merits, all the glory, beauty, and the salvific love that emanate from them.

With every Holy Hour that you spend, you're saying to Jesus: "My Lord and my God." (Jn 20:28)

And every time He says to you: "Blessed are you, Thomas, because you have not seen, and yet have believed."

Mgr Pepe.