An Encounter With the Risen ChristSample

Disbelief that God can perform miracles, and wanting to explain everything with reason, can lead us to spiritual aridity. Blindly trusting our reason can make us miss out on the wonderful works that God does in our lives and in the lives of those around us. The first condition for believing in miracles is that we believe that they can happen. If we do not accept that, then we will explain any event from pure reason.

Thomas spent three years of his life watching Jesus do things that reason could not explain: turning water into wine, multiplying food, resurrecting people, walking on water, calming a storm, healing people, and casting out demons. Apparently, when everything was going well, it became easy for the disciple to believe that his Master could perform miracles. But when Jesus died doubts arose. Everything he had seen, now he could explain rationally, no longer left room for believing in miracles, in the power of God. He thinks he can explain everything. When the disciples tell him that Jesus was resurrected, Thomas cannot believe it. He even asks for proof of this: he trusts more in himself than in the power of God. Jesus appears to Thomas and tells him to do whatever proof he needs to believe it. At that moment Thomas recognizes him as his Lord and God.

As Christians, we live seeing the wonders of God in our lives, but there are stages in which we believe that He has done nothing and we give credit to our efforts or even luck before God. We must pray fervently so as not to reach that spiritual aridity. Let's try to keep in mind everything that God has done for us. I hope that the encounter we have with Jesus is constant and that we do not demand proof of it in disbelief. May we proclaim Him daily as the one and only Lord and God of our lives.