John's Gospel gives Thomas three moments. When Jesus resolves to return to Judea where his life is threatened, Thomas says to the others, "Let us also go to die with him." At the Last Supper he objects, "Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" and receives the answer, "I am the way and the truth and the life." And on the octave day of the Resurrection, having refused to believe the others, he is invited to put his finger into the wounds and answers, "My Lord and my God" — the Gospel proclaimed at this feast. The Church has never treated that episode as an embarrassment. Thomas's demand for evidence and his surrender before the risen body of Christ stand at the end of John's Gospel as the confession toward which the whole book moves, and the Lord's reply — "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed" — is addressed to every later generation. The first reading of the feast is from Ephesians: the faithful are no longer strangers but fellow citizens, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Ancient and continuous tradition holds that Thomas carried the Gospel east to India, and the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala trace their origin to his preaching; the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches, in full communion with Rome, are their heirs. His relics were venerated at Edessa, and July 3 in the General Roman Calendar is associated with their translation there; before the post-conciliar reform the Roman Rite kept his feast on December 21. Red vestments are worn.

Feast

feast

July 3

feast