Doubting Thomas

Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)

12 April 2026

 

First Reading: Acts 2:42-47

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24

Second Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9

Gospel: John 20:19-31

 

Reflection

By: Benj Santiago

 

Thomas represents many of us today—wounded by broken systems, unfulfilled promises, and deep disappointments. 

We struggle to believe in change because we have seen too much injustice, corruption, and inequality. 

Yet Jesus enters locked rooms of fear and speaks peace. This Gospel teaches that faith is not blind optimism but courageous trust. 

For all of us, healing begins when we choose belief over bitterness, unity over division, and service over self-interest. 

Christ’s wounds remind us that even suffering can become a source of healing, and that true transformation begins when we allow God to touch our doubts.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, like Thomas, we carry doubts born from injustice and broken promises. 

Enter our locked hearts and speak Your peace. Heal our nation’s wounds with courage and faith. Teach us to choose unity over division and service over self. Transform our suffering into hope, and our doubts into trust. Amen.

Surrender Your Control to Jesus' Will

Twenty-fifth Sunday in

Ordinary Time

19 September 2021 

 

First Reading: WIS 2:12, 17-20

Responsorial Psalm: PS 54:3-4, 5, 6 and 8

Second Reading: JAS 3:16-4:3

Gospel: MK 9:30-37

 

Reflection

By: Theresa Ballo

 

Imagine that you are one with the disciples following Jesus and you hear from Him how He would suffer yet you see calmness as he laid out all the negative things that will happen to Him in this journey, wouldn't we be exactly like the disciples questioning a lot of things? In your heart, there's a belief that you are actually following a man who performed wondrous miracles. Will you express your doubts? I felt the hesitations from these disciples in controlling themselves to ask questions to Jesus. They cannot understand why the Son of God, all powerful that He is, would accept suffering and even death on the cross.

Maybe just like the disciples, we also fail to really listen to Jesus. We only focus ourselves on suffering and death where in fact He also speaks about His resurrection. Sometimes we think that asking questions would make us stupid and uninformed. We are too proud of ourselves to acknowledge vulnerability. We seek answers but are reluctant to do things that will give clarity to our confusion by simply asking a question.

The good news we have today is that in many moments of our lives, we are like the child Jesus carried. Most of the time, we do not understand or do not know many things happening around us. Jesus holding a child, the ultimate symbol of not knowing, not understanding, immature and underdeveloped but one who would completely trust and believe his caregiver. And that I think is the invitation, no matter how big or small our questions in this life. It is only in the eyes of a child that we see wonder. It is only through wonder that we can feel the glory and greatness of the Father. We need not to fear because we are in the presence of our Savior. A quote would say, "perfect love casts out all fear."

Forget our selfish ego. Forget pride. Forget being in control. Arise each day. If some things in your life are difficult, just breathe. Breathe in the Holy Spirit's air that someone is taking care of you. Be aware of the many you can be thankful for in the day, but ultimately leave it to God to make it happen. This spiritual struggle of being in control and letting go is a tug-of-war with our own ego. All our stories are coming true, and that for me is the Good News. I once told my mentees, do not get distracted by focusing on getting it right all the time. Step back, come back and continue your journey, your story. Be humble. Allow Jesus to come into our lives. Continue self-emptying, by giving to others, so later on, God can fill us up with His glory and power. Are you ready to humble yourself and serve as Jesus did?

Prayer

 

Lord Jesus, by Your cross You have revealed Your glory and triumph over the sin and death. May I never fail to see Your glory and victory in the cross. Help me to lessen my need for control and surrender my life to Your will so I can follow in Your way of holiness. Amen.

 

Jesus, The Great Healer and Evangelizer!

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

07 February 2021 

 

First Reading:  JB 7:1-4, 6-7

Responsorial Psalm:  PS 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Second Reading:  1 COR 9:16-19, 22-23

Gospel:  MK 1:2939

 

Reflection

By: Jose Paulo M. Gonzales

 

Three accounts, one divine reality. The Jesus that we see today is He who brings miraculous healing.

Jesus has been called many things: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), but one that greatly tantalizes people unto Him at a pace so instant is His being the "Great Healer." As a child, I remember how my mother would tuck me into bed. On nights she would feel a fever running up my body, as she places her hand on my forehead to see how high the fever likely is, she would remind me, "Jesus is the Greatest Physician."

 

There are only few things that can uplift the human condition so significantly--so instantly than miraculous healing. This is why it is understandable how for some people, as far-off from the faith they may have appeared before, we hear stories of radical conversion. As incredible as the healing is, the amazement towards God, which can bring about the radical conversion, can also be.

Jesus needed only little to make healing happen. In the Gospel we read, it was only the hand of Simon's mother. As He helped her up, the fever left her. In Matthew 9:20-22, twelve years of bleeding made no impediment of God's ability to heal. It was only hem if His garment the woman in distress needed touching--only so slightly--and twelve years of bleeding--now gone! In John 5, there was a man gazing upon the pool of Bethesda. He was regretful upon thinking how for many years, he could never manage to go into the pool for many who were much more able-bodied than he was  would go first. And then came Jesus' healing words: "Get up, pick up your mat, and go."

 

In these instances of healing, it is common to hear Jesus saying something along the lines of: "Go, your faith has healed you;"  but truth be told. Even our ability to believe can falter. Differing experiences every day could bring us to felicitous speaks, but to also disheartening troughs. Would God be any less able to heal us if we fall short on faith? I, for one, believe that God can heal independently of our faith. He precedes us; it is His breath that willed us into existence. His abilities surpass our abilities, and more so, our shortcomings. I believe that God can work well beyond our ability or inability to believe, for past our ability to believe is His innately unconquerable love. So why does God say that it is the woman's faith that healed her? Why do we believe that it is our faith that heals? It may be that while God is ever able to heal us with less regard to where we are in life, strong in faith or not, bearing in mind that it is well in God's ability to implant in us the faith we need, the faith that we muster ourselves can serve as the "door" that signals our assent to the Lord. In other words, our faith can either accept or reject God's healing, as willing as He is--ever!--to administer it.

The reality of faith is beyond me. While I may not fully understand what the relationship is between our faith and God's miraculous healing, it is my hope that God would help us cultivate strong faith, nonetheless. For if God said we can move mountains even with faith the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20), who knows that astounding realities our faith can make happen if God breathes his miracles into it?

After doing great feats of healing, it is admirable how Jesus took to prayer. Such was His relationship with the Father that Jesus culminated His healings with His communication with the Father. Along with Jesus healing many from their predicaments, He delivered the Good News. Jesus met healing and evangelization together--both parts of His ministry--faith and works intertwined! Commendable in healing ability, also in fulfilling responsibility. This is the Jesus we love and serve.

 

Prayer

 

Jesus, help us cultivate strong faith, so we can enable Your healing to happen in us and others. May this healing bring us closer to You. In our testimonies, may the healing experience bring others closer to You.

 

Please help us also make good with our responsibilities as You did. Please help us in our undertakings and may we never fail to fulfill our responsibility to spread Your Good Word.

In Your most Holy Name, Jesus, Amen.

 

 

Discipleship 101

Second Sunday of Easter
01 May 2011


The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.


First reading Acts 2:42-47 3
The whole community remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
The many miracles and signs worked through the apostles made a deep impression on everyone.
The faithful all lived together and owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions and shared out the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed.
They went as a body to the Temple every day but met in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly and generously; they praised God and were looked up to by everyone. Day by day the Lord added to their community those destined to be saved.

Psalm or canticle: Psalm 117:2-4,13-15,22-24

Second reading 1 Peter 1:3-9
Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has given us a new birth as his sons, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, so that we have a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away, because it is being kept for you in the heavens. Through your faith, God’s power will guard you until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed at the end of time. This is a cause of great joy for you, even though you may for a short time have to bear being plagued by all sorts of trials; so that, when Jesus Christ is revealed, your faith will have been tested and proved like gold – only it is more precious than gold, which is corruptible even though it bears testing by fire – and then you will have praise and glory and honour. You did not see him, yet you love him; and still without seeing him, you are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described, because you believe; and you are sure of the end to which your faith looks forward, that is, the salvation of your souls.

Gospel John 20:19-31
In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.
‘As the Father sent me,
so am I sending you.’
After saying this he breathed on them and said:
‘Receive the Holy Spirit.
For those whose sins you forgive,
they are forgiven;
for those whose sins you retain,
they are retained.’
Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:
‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.

Reflection
By Herminia Jamandri-Flores

In all college courses, the introduction or the basic principles in all major subjects are coded 101. It gives us a glimpse of everything the course has to offer. The Sunday readings talk about the basics of discipleship, the main characteristics and work of disciples. In the Philippines, May 1 is also celebrated as Feast of St. Joseph the “Anluwage”, the Patron of Workers, which also coincides with the public holiday, Labor Day. It is also a day of rejoicing for the Church because it is the Divine Mercy Sunday.

But how do we see discipleship in the ordinary people with ordinary everyday life?

I was on a jeepney on a Saturday, almost dusk, when four men came up, each holding an old bag with hammer, chisel, saw and an assortment of carpentry tools. They were talking very loud all at the same time. They settled themselves on the available spaces unmindful of the discomfort. They give out an acrid smell of dried sweat mixed with cheap men’s cologne which obviously defiled the sweet scent of young people going out on a weekend spree.

Each one of these carpenters has a story to tell. The one seated beside me counted how many weeks of work more before he gets fully paid the small television he bought for his children. The second one is excited to see his son who is just starting to walk. The third man opted to hang by the bar to give his seat to an old woman. He has the loudest laugh and the nastiest remarks. The oldest who was seated at the back of the driver assisted in the giving of fares and change to passengers who neither said “please” nor “thank you.” He was almost 50 years old and has a pregnant 20 year old wife. He is saving for the birth of the child. “Is it really your child or your neighbor’s?,” asked the third guy, and more laughter. Unmoved by the nasty remark, he said that all he believes is the child is a gift from God.

I was moved by the strength of character they showed. They live simple lives. They don’t care if people recognize them or not. But they are concerned about the people they love and the houses they build, and the help they could give to anyone. They alighted the jeep happily celebrating the joy of seeing their loved ones after a week of stay-in work even with little money at hand and knowing that what they built will last.

St. Joseph must have been like them, burly and brawny, the smell of dried sweat but with lots of stories about Jesus and Mary to boast to his friends. Jesus, in His childhood, must have learned a lot from St. Joseph: how it is to be sincere in helping people, that the motive of work is to serve, and that faith is believing that which we cannot see. These are the basic elements of discipleship as seen from the life of St. Joseph, the worker. These are also the life of the early Christians following the teachings of Jesus.

So, is discipleship difficult? Let’s learn from the Carpenter.

Almighty and Ever Living God, You called people to be disciples of your Beloved Son, Jesus. You entrusted Him to St. Joseph, a model of discipleship. In obedience to Your divine plan, he took care of Jesus and Mary with sincerity of heart and faith in Your Word. He walked every step of the way with Jesus in a lifelong discipleship practiced in everyday life. Through his intercession, help us to live our daily Christian lives in loving service and obedience to Jesus’ teachings, to mature in faith through community life and to look forward to the breaking of the bread as spiritual nourishment. Make us see Jesus in the people we meet everyday so that we may be able to offer our work for Your greater glory through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Next week on God-speak
Planting Little Kisses