Thomas: We All Have Doubts
Do your doubts unsettle you, or do you see them as an invitation to grow?
Our Guest Blogger today is: Joan “Ski” Sieczkowski, Communications Coordinator for OLIH.
I’ve always been one of those people who mulls things over, who seeks out all the different possibilities. And I can tell myself it’s just because I want to make an ‘informed decision’ but the truth is it also leads to ‘decision paralysis’ and helps fuel my natural inclination to procrastinate.
When it comes to my faith though—being a cradle Catholic—I always just took it for granted. On top of that, since I was raised with Baltimore Catechism, there was no wiggle room—I knew all the answers! And then Vatican II came along as I hit my adolescent years and we were told to ‘question everything’; that a faith without questions is not alive. As Matthew Kelly puts it, ‘One of the essential requirements of faith is the absence of certainty. If you can be certain, there is no need for faith.’
It’s one of the reasons I love that we have so any opportunities for Adult Faith Formation now. You have a question about a topic? You can pick up a book and follow along on a blog (like this!) Or you can join a study, download a course, attend a workshop or listen to a podcast. In fact, you can listen to so many different voices and opinions and then follow it by listening to the words of Jesus put in context and with 2,000 years of Church scholarship behind it. Talk about a mother lode for someone who likes to study all the possibilities!
There is always more to question and more to find out. Isn’t it so like God to set it up so that the more questions you have, the more you strengthen your faith? Maybe that’s why He picked ‘Doubting Thomas’ to be one of the Twelve. Do you know the other question Thomas is attributed with? ‘Lord we do not know where You are going so how can we know the way?’ And I’m sure the answer was, ‘Just ask for directions. Study the map I left you!’
PS—And in one of those ‘God moments’, it wasn’t until I read this chapter that I found out Thomas was the apostle who went to India. As fate would have it, my son announced at New Year’s that he is engaged to a young woman whose family is from India. So I am definitely putting ‘Good Thomas’ on my crew to foster understanding and a strong relationship between us all. (He’ll be right there with St Joan of Arc--fighting my battles!)