Faith not only in prayers, also in taking care of needs of the poor

It's been related that while Father (later Bishop) Fulton Sheen was giving a public lecture, explaining Jonah and his mission, a heckler from the audience harrased him to the point of being disrespectful.

- FR. BEL R. SAN LUIS, SVD

The young fellow expressed cynical doubt whether God could make Jonah live three days in the belly of the whale.

An exhausted Sheen finally said: "Forget it, I'll ask Jonah when I get to Heaven."

"What if he isn't there?" heckled the doubter.

"Then you ask him yourself," replied Sheen.

***

In the second Sunday after Easter, we encounter a similar doubter--like the above heckler--in the person of Thomas, one of Jesus' apostles.

"Unless I see the scars of the nails in his hands and put my fingrer on those scars and my hand in his side, I will not believe" (Jn 20,24).

***

Thomas got his wish after the ensuing week when the Risen Lord appeared. Mildly censuring him, Jesus called him by name and said, "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Touch and feel my side. Cease to doubt, but believe!" (Jn 20,27).

Confronted with the real person, there was no more need for Thomas to touch, to feel Christ's side. Instead, he fell on his knees and cried: "You are my Lord and my God."

***

Jesus acknowledged that Thomas had moved from doubt to faith. "You became a believer because you have seen.