What hit me most in listening to today’s readings is the role doubt has played in the lives of believers. In the first reading Moses talks of the great signs through which God made himself known to his people.
“Did ever a people hear the voice of the living God speaking from the heart of the fire, as you have heard it, and remain alive? … grasp this today and meditate on it carefully: Yahweh is the true God, in heaven above as on earth beneath, he and no other.”
It’s fitting that God used fire to appear to Moses. Because thst fire ignited a spirit of belief in him and his people. That Holy Spirit is the focus of the second reading and is represented in the fire within all believers. Paul’s letter to the Romans says it:
“The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God.”
And in today’s gospel God the Son calls his disciples to a mountain to ignite the spirit of belief in them. He had to turn that flame on high to overcome the chill of doubt in some of them.
“When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated.”
That hesitation proved that Thomas was not the only doubter among them. It took the power of the trinity to turn that doubt into conviction. It’s the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, that requires our commitment and courage to spread the reality of God to others. The Spirit unites us in love for each other and therefore we become one in God. His believers become part of the Trinity because, as John wrote, God is love.