Thomas
the Apostle who was also named Didymus was a Galilean. After he had
received the Holy Ghost he travelled through many provinces preaching
the Gospel of Christ. He taught the principles of Christian faith and
practice to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hircanians and Bactrians.
He finally went to the Indies and instructed the inhabitants of those
countries in the Christian religion. Up to the last he gained for
himself the esteem of all men by the holiness of his life and
teaching, and by the wonderful miracles he wrought. He stirred up,
also, in their hearts, the love of Jesus Christ. The King of those
parts, a worshipper of idols was, on the contrary, only the more
irritated by all these things. He condemned the Saint to be pierced
to death by javelins, which punishment was inflicted at Calamina and
gave Thomas the highest honour of his Apostolate, the crown of
martyrdom.
Dom
Prosper Guéranger:
This is the last Feast the Church keeps before the great one of the Nativity of her Lord and Spouse. She interrupts the Greater Ferias in order to pay her tribute of honour to Thomas, the Apostle of Christ, whose glorious martyrdom has consecrated this twenty-first day of December, and has procured for the Christian people a powerful patron that will introduce them to the divine babe of Bethlehem. To none of the Apostles could this day have been so fittingly assigned as to Saint Thomas. It was Saint Thomas whom we needed, Saint Thomas whose festal patronage would aid us to believe and hope in that God whom we see not, and who comes to us in silence and humility in order to try our Faith. Saint Thomas was once guilty of doubting, when he ought to have believed, and only learnt the necessity of Faith by the sad experience of incredulity: he comes then most appropriately to defend us, by the power of his example and prayers, against the temptations which proud human reason might excite within us. Let us pray to him with confidence. In that Heaven of Light and Vision where his repentance and love have placed him, he will intercede for us and gain for us that docility of mind and heart which will enable us to see and recognise Him who is the Expected of Nations and who, though the King of the world, will give no other signs of His majesty than the swaddling-clothes and tears of a babe.
*****
O glorious Apostle Thomas, who led to Christ so many unbelieving nations, hear now the prayers of the faithful who beseech you to lead them to that same Jesus who, in five days, will have shown Himself to His Church. That we may merit to appear in His divine presence we need, before all other graces, the light which leads to Him. That light is Faith: then, pray that we may have Faith. Heretofore our Saviour had compassion on your weakness and deigned to remove from you the doubt of His having risen from the grave. Pray to Him for us that He will mercifully come to our assistance and make Himself felt by our heart. We ask not, O holy Apostle, to see Him with the eyes of our body, but with those of our faith, for He said to you when He showed Himself to you: “Blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed!” Of this happy number, we desire to be. We beseech you, therefore, pray that we may obtain the Faith of the heart and will that so, when we behold the divine infant wrapped in swaddling-clothes and laid in a manger, we may cry out: “My Lord and my God!” Pray, holy Apostle, for the nations you evangelised, but which have fallen back again into the shades of death. May the day soon come when the Sun of Justice will once more shine on them. Bless the efforts of those apostolic men who have devoted their labours and their very lives to the work of the Missions. Pray that the days of darkness may be shortened, and that the countries which were watered by your blood may at length see that kingdom of God established among them which you preached to them, and for which we also are in waiting.
THE
GREAT ANTIPHON OF SAINT THOMAS
O Thomas! Didymus! who merited to see Christ; we beseech you, by most earnest supplication, help us miserable sinners, lest we be condemned with the ungodly at the Coming of the Judge.
Also on
this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
In Tuscany, the holy martyrs John and Festus.
In Lycia, St. Themistocles, martyr, who under the
emperor Decius, offered himself in the place of St. Dioscorus, who
was sought after to be killed, and being racked, dragged about and
beaten with rods, obtained the crown of martyrdom.
At Nicomedia, during the persecution of
Diocletian, St. Glycerins, a priest, who was subjected to many
torments, and finally completed his martyrdom by being cast into the
flames.
At Antioch, St. Anastasius, bishop and martyr, who
was cruelly murdered by the Jews during the reign of Phocas.
At Treves, St. Severin, bishop and confessor.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs,
confessors and virgins.
Thanks
be to God.
