IT IS NOT surprising that the disciples of Our Lord, if influenced by such a saying as "seeing is believing", were hesitant, questioning and doubting, in order to be "sure" that something supremely wonderful - the Resurrection - had actually taken place. The Resurrection appearances strike a chord of companion ship with all of us in our search to accept and absorb the great truth that establishes disciples in a new way of life and purpose. Their hesitation is evident in the appearances of the risen Lord.
The disciples were not negative as they talked on the road to Emmaus. Like the others, they were longing to be sure of the Resurrection. Just because he is called "Doubting Thomas", it is a mistake to think he was set on "knocking the faith". Nobody could have been more pleased when he was happy to say to the risen Christ: My Lord and my God".
He who said he would not believe unless he saw Jesus himself, and touched His wounds, was then convinced that the Resurrection was authentic. Then, for him, an obstinate gloom was transformed into a radiant faith. The poet Tennyson recognised that there can be "faith in honest doubt". Those who fight, their way through honest doubting to the conviction that Jesus is living, attain a faith that unthinking acceptance may not reach.
An unthinking or off hand attitude to the message of Easter will mature into faith when there is a need for prayer. In the midst of a severe storm in the Bay of Biscay, a seafarer turned in prayer to the Eternal Father strong to save". He said that God guided him. He risked his life to carry out a particular "job" that had to be done to save the ship and its crew:
Eternal Father. strong to save, chose arm doth bind the rest-
less wave, who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we pray to thee
For those in peril on the sea.
As the seafarer told of his adventure, one could see that faith in God had become his way of life. Prayer came naturally to him. The same was true of the disciples. Being closely associated with Jesus, they had grown in the faith and deep devotion towards Him that they would need. It enabled them to face Holy Week and Easter. The same is true of ourselves . . . the key to faith's growth is to be found in loving Him so much that we cannot bear to be without Him.
Jesus, my Lord, I thee adore.
I make me love three more and more.