
Put your hand into my side - 03-07-2026
Saint Thomas, apostle - Feast
First Reading
Eph 2,19-22.
Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 117(116),1.2.
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
For steadfast is his kindness for us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
Gospel
John 20,24-29.
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe."
Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
YOUCAT Reflection
75 Why do Christians address Jesus as "Lord"?
"You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am" (Jn 13,13).
The early Christians spoke as a matter of course about Jesus as "Lord", knowing that in the Old Testament this title was reserved as a form of addressing God. Through many signs Jesus had shown them that he had divine power over nature, demons, sin, and death. The divine origin of Jesus' mission was revealed in his Resurrection from the dead. Thomas confessed, "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20,28). For us this means that since Jesus is "the Lord", a Christian may not bend his knee to any other power.
