Meeting People Where They Are

This is a theme that has been popping up in  my life all the time lately (thanks, Dad!), so I should not have been at all surprised when it popped up again in the Gospel on the Second Sunday of Easter.  Who doesn't love the story of Doubting Thomas? Good ol' Thomas.  First problem: he's not with the other disciples in the locked room.  Second problem: he's an empiricist - maybe a little short on faith.  Who doesn't sympathize with him from time to time? At the elevation of the Host at  every Mass, I touch my hand to my heart and silently say, "My Lord and my God, I believe; help my unbelief." I feel you, Thomas.

What Fr. Troy pointed out on Sunday that made this Gospel new again, though, was Jesus' reaction to Thomas.  Yes, I've read the story before.  I know how Jesus responded to Thomas.  It was very...Jesus-like.  Patient. Loving.  As Fr. Troy pointed out, Jesus did not berate Thomas, saying "What's wrong with you? I died for you, for Heaven's sake.  I rose from the dead.  When I was here, you saw the water I changed into wine.  You saw the loaves and the fishes multiplied.  What more do you need, you ungrateful wretch?" Rather, Fr. Troy said that Jesus met Thomas where he was.  Thomas wanted the physical proof, and so Jesus offered it to him.  What Fr. Troy pointed out (that I loved) is that the Gospel never says that Thomas actually took Jesus up on his offer.

So, meeting people where they are.  It's the new theme of my life.  Of course, the place where this really applies to me is in my home and with my son.  If I ever needed Jesus as a role model, that would be the place and time.  I honestly don't know how to do it.  Abrupt end to a blog post? Yes, but when you've been staring at the page for what seems like forever, what else is there to do? I honestly don't know how to do it.