The Feast of St Thomas

     Today is the feast of St Thomas.  You know the guy--would not believe in the resurrected Christ unless he could put his hands into the wounds, so Jesus made a special appearance to the disciples to give him that opportunity which he took and then he believed.  St Thomas has become the archtype for all of our doubts.  We don't usually think about him on the twenty first of December, he's more in our reality the first Sunday after Easter, which has become known as "Doubting Thomas Sunday" because we read about him that Sunday in the gospels and if we're lucky we hear a thought provoking sermon about doubt. But on the twenty first of December we're more likely to be wrapping our heads around the magic of Christmas--what other time of the year do we really believe that some fat guy in a red suit is gonna cram  himself down our chimney (even if we don't have a chimney) to deliver presents to us just because we've been nice?  Its not considered socially acceptable to have any doubts about that.  So maybe there's something a bit refreshing to celebrate the king of doubt in the midst of our holiday induced euphoria.
     I would not myself be thinking about St Thomas, or the whole concept of doubting, if I were not a member of St Thomas Church..  Since St Thomas is our patron saint, we celebrate his feast day (we actually celebrated it this past Saturday but that's good since it gave me a few days to think about all of my doubts).  It was a beautiful service, one of the few times we get to use the red frontal and vestments, and Father Justin gave a wonderful sermon about how our doubts form our ownership of our belief system.  St Thomas is a very fitting patron saint for us--it is a church where it is safe to express your doubts, and where Christ through each other continually meets you with just the right amount of  evidence to allow you to believe.  No one forces their beliefs on you.  Maybe that's what attracted me to the church of St Thomas.        
     An infusion of doubt is healthy every so often, even in a season of the year where we are expected to suspend all of our doubts.   Rock on, St Thomas!