Every year this second Sunday of Easter we recall the story of the doubting Thomas, Thomas the sceptic, Thomas who needed proof. Certainly Thomas did doubt, with good reason. No one had ever resurrected before Jesus. No one had ever imagined an individual resurrecting before the general resurrection of all the dead on the last day! Thomas knew for certain that Jesus had died. His dreams and hopes had also suffocated, nailed to a tree with Jesus. And he was left behind with the others.

Perhaps Thomas harboured doubts because the other disciples were still huddled in hiding behind locked doors a whole week after Jesus had appeared to them, had wished them peace, had breathed upon them and empowered them? Thomas seems to have gotten it the first time around but the others seem to have needed a booster shot in order for them to be fully inoculated against their fear and doubt and go about preaching the good news of the Kingdom that Jesus had proclaimed even unto his death on a cross. Why are the other ten still in hiding when they had already seen and heard the risen Lord? Maybe Thomas would have believed their story had they been emboldened enough to have been changed by it and truly lived it.