A sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter, April 27, 2025. The scripture readings are Acts 5:27-32, Revelation 1:4-8, John 20:19-31, and Psalm 150.
Many have been moved by the faith and witness of Pope Francis over the last few months, and especially in the last few weeks, leading up to his death on Easter Monday. We join our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers in praying for the repose of his soul and in continuing to give thanks for his life. May the church continue to live out his love for the poor, the immigrants and refugees, the imprisoned and forgotten.
In 2021, Pope Francis was addressing a conference of young people and he said the sorts of honest, simple things that so often got him into trouble with some of the more rigid, conservative factions of the Church. Pope Francis encouraged the young people, “Don’t be afraid of doubts.” “Don’t be afraid of doubts . . . [because they’re] not a sign of the lack of faith . . . . [but instead] doubts should be considered ‘vitamins of faith’ because they help to strengthen faith and make it ‘more robust.’”
They enable faith to grow, to become more conscious, free, and mature. They make it more eager to set out, to persevere with humility, day after day. Faith is precisely that: a daily journey with Jesus who takes us by the hand, accompanies us, encourages us, and, when we fall, lifts us up. He is never afraid to do this. Faith is like a love story, where we press forward together, day after day. Like a love story too, there are times when we have to think, to face questions, to look into our hearts. And that is good, because it raises the quality of the relationship! [Meeting with Young people, Address of His Holiness Pope Francis, Saint Dionysius School of the Ursuline Sisters in Maroussi, Athens, Monday, 6 December 2021, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2021/december/documents/20211206-grecia-giovani.html
On this Second Sunday of Easter, St. Thomas the Apostle (sometimes called, Doubting Thomas) reminds us of just what Pope Francis was pointing to—a way in which doubt can lead to a deepening of faith, a reach for Jesus, and the feeling that he is taking us by the hand to guide us onward.
We can learn from the Apostle Thomas, from Pope Francis, and from all those who have gone before us and have been honest about their doubts.
Way back in Exodus, we can remember that when Moses is called by God, Moses has his doubts. Abraham and Sarah laugh when the angels tell them that they’re going to have a son in old age. Their doubt makes them laugh out loud, and that laughter continues, as they name their son Isaac, a name that means “laughter.” Jonah doubts. Jeremiah doubts. The Samaritan woman at the well doubts the living water offered by Jesus. Zaccheus the tax collector doubts God’s love can even include him. Even Mary the Mother of Jesus was part of his family who worried that he had lost his mind and wanted to bring him home (Mark 3).
Perhaps even more surprising, if we look closely, it seems as though even Jesus sometimes doubts.
He doubts his mission: as he first imagines he is sent only to save the Jews, it takes a Samaritan woman to widen his perspective. Jesus doubts his disciples as he predicts that Peter will quickly lose heart will deny having anything to do with Jesus. In the garden, Jesus wonders if God is there, and on the cross, Jesus again wonders if God has forgotten.
I mention all of these people of tremendous faith that we encounter in scripture, and (at the risk of heresy) I mention Jesus, as well, to point out that St. Thomas is not alone in his doubting. And I think we miss a lot of what God would have us see, if we pretend that doubt is an abnormal or subnormal place to be. Sometimes we are filled with faith. Sometimes we doubt. God is still God.
And so, where does that leave us, when we doubt? When we’re in doubt, I can think of at least three ways in which God might actually use doubt to bring us closer.
First, we can question. Through faith and with faith, we can research, read, study, and question. The theologian Paul Tillich argues that doubt is included in every act of faith. In fact, his book The Dynamics of Faith he writes
In those who rest on their unshakable faith, pharisaism, and fanaticism are the unmistakable symptoms of doubt which has been repressed. Doubt is overcome not by repression but by courage. Courage does not deny that there is doubt, but it takes the doubt into itself as an expression of its own finitude and affirms the content of an ultimate concern. Courage does not need the safety of an unquestionable conviction. … Even if the confession that Jesus is the Christ is expressed in a strong and positive way, the fact that it is a confession implies courage and risk.” (Chp. 6, Sect. 1)
Tillich uses the wonderful word, “courage,” which includes in it the French word for heart, “Coeur.” To have courage is to allow the heart to lead us—through doubt, through fear, and eventually, through faith.
“Love the questions themselves. Live the questions now,” was the advice of Rainer Maria Rilke to a young poet.
Second, we can ask for help. Share doubts with another, we’ll not only find that we’re not as isolated as we think, but chances are that the person has also had doubts and can understand our questions.
And third, we can do what saints and sinners of every age have done: we can give the doubt to God. Teresa of Avila, the 16th century nun and reformer famously prayed for some 18 years feeling as though her prayers were not really being heard. But she kept on and is one of those very few saints who is said to have found union with God in prayer.
And so, when we’re doubting, we can learn something. We can lean on someone. We can love God.
We are given “doubting Thomas” as a brother in doubt and faith, a fellow disciple who paved a rough way for us to faith. St. Thomas not only stands as the father of Indian and Syrian Christianity, he also stands as a patron for those whose faith does not come easily, with those whose faith includes a measure of doubt, a bit of suspicion, maybe even a little cynicism.
It’s ok to doubt. It’s ok to wonder. It’s ok even to be a little suspicious—especially since for one (if not more) suspicion eventually has led to sainthood.
Especially at this time of year, may we be honest with out doubts and honest with our belief– perhaps even using doubts as “vitamins of our faith.” May we know that wherever we may be, God loves us and wants to come to us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.