Today’s Gospel, told by St. John, is a powerful telling of the appearing of the risen Jesus after the cruelty of His death on the cross. The person who appears is real. The disciples see the wounds that were made on His body; then they listen to the command that He gives to them sending them out to the whole world, to reconcile all to God. The absence of Thomas works happily for all generations to come. His doubts about a risen Lord are sensible and sane. He wants some proof. Thomas, as it were, stands for all of us, in our absence from that scene. In appearing again, to Thomas, Jesus is appearing to us. And, Jesus calls down a blessing upon us, the blessing of faith, the gift of believing. The Holy Spirit will work in us, bestowing on us the grace and power of faith. As Thomas falls to his knees, he prays the prayer of all who believe: “My Lord and my God!†St. John writes this for two reasons – so that we may believe in the Lord, as he does, and so that we may have life. That life is the Easter life of the risen Jesus.