A living Church

Doubt can be a good thing! Today's Gospel account about Thomas' disbelief shows that doubt can effectively lead to real spiritual growth. Thomas found it difficult to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. It could easily have been any one of the other disciples. Jesus's words: "Do not doubt but believe", are an invitation to us all to develop a permanent attitude of openness towards and trust in God - to be open to Him and trust Him not just occasionally, but all the time.

Scepticism is the hallmark of our education today, to the extent that at times we are alone with our doubts. In the battle of ideas during these last centuries this has been the approach adopted. But our doubting culture knows it is also a culture that longs for, and is searching for something that it has not yet found. And there is so much that Christianity has to say here.

As we read from Acts today, "the many miracles and signs worked through the apostles made a deep impression on everyone". Christianity needs to recover the power of 'miracles and signs' in our culture. It is not words that count. The world has an urge to 'see'.

Looking at the reality of our churches and liturgies today, we may envy the vitality and dynamism that characterised the early Christian communities. Vatican II was meant to take us back to those living sources of Christianity because otherwise we risk all the time becoming stagnant. This call was to some extent heeded. But there have also been so many delusions.

Early Christianity's dynamism may provide direction for Christendom's transition to a new way of being Church. We cannot, as a Church, afford to just float with the tide of modern culture or, worse still, with the tide of the traditions we have created with the passing of time. It is not memories and relics that keep us going, but the memory of He who was raised from the dead "so that we have a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away" (Peter).

At times, the Church resembles the apostles "with the doors closed for fear of the Jews" rather than the Church at Pentecost. We have just celebrated Christ's resurrection. But at this juncture of history, it is the Church that is called to rise from the dead. For this, we need to go beyond words and an apologetic approach. It is significant that in this day and age, people like Padre Pio and Mother Teresa have become modern-day icons who speak louder than words and who have left a deep impression on people's lives, in a similar way to that mentioned in Acts today. Just as Jesus is risen from the dead and stands in front of his disciples "showing them his hands and his side", so also the Church continues to be the vehicle of God's spirit in spite of her visible deficiencies.

In Acts today, the early Christian communities' basic features are outlined as faithfulness to the apostles' teaching, to brotherhood, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. It is this same faithfulness that can be a source of courage and inspiration for us, a source of renewed apostolic leadership in the Church and on the part of the Church towards society at large so that Christianity, even in its ecclesial form, may continue to be a visible manifestation of how the Good News of Jesus Christ is present in the world and can actually transform human culture to reflect more faithfully God's intentions for creation.

René Camilleri