Blessed are they who have not seen and have still believed

For forty days after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples. Since Easter, we have heard all of these accounts of his appearances at Mass. Each of them has a message for us, but I have been reflecting most on the gospel of Low Quasimodo Divine Mercy Sunday in albis, the first Sunday after Easter, and the first Sunday after Easter.

Each one of those names has a whole profound history behind it, but that will need to wait for another year, for it was also Doubting Thomas Sunday, after the gospel for the day (John 20:19-31) in which the Apostle Thomas doubts the resurrection and our Blessed Lord calls him out on it, saying, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Now, there is a low-hanging reading of this passage about the virtue of Faith and belief in the resurrection of the dead. You probably heard some version of that analysis at that Sunday Mass a few months back. But, important as that reading is, there are other readings, because the resurrection of Jesus applies to our lives now, not just at the hour of death.

“Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.”

That word, blessed, is μακαριος (makarios). It is the same word used in the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). It is not happiness, the passing emotion, but what Thomas (Aquinas, not the Apostle) calls beatitudo. Defining it is difficult, and Aquinas does it through the treatise on Man’s Last End, the first five questions of the first part of the second part of the Summa Theologica, for beatitudo is, quite simply, the meaning of life, and the thing that all of us are seeking. It does not consist in money or status or pleasure or human relationships or in any created thing, but in the enjoyment of God.

That is all well and good, but what does it mean? Well, among many other things, it means you don’t need to have plans.

Before you panic, this applies only under the following conditions: you have a job sufficient to provide you with food and shelter, you are mostly healthy, you are free from any habits of grave sin, all your relationships are basically okay, there is no duty that you are clearly neglecting, and you are living primarily in reality (as opposed to online). If any of those areas of your life have problems in them, you absolutely need to make plans to resolve those problems. But if everything is basically okay, and yet you are still discontented, then you don’t need to make plans.

You don’t need to hustle. You don’t need to have a “plan” for your life, or something requiring you to push and strive. If everything is okay, then everything is okay. Just be.

But, but, you say, what am I supposed to *do*? Some things would be nice to have in the future, perhaps a house, with a spouse and children, or perhaps a better job that would give you more money or status, or perhaps you feel a gentle call to religious life. Yes, those things may be nice, but *you* don’t need to seek them.

What you need to do is cleave to God. He is the One who has plans for you. All you need to do is follow the promptings of His will.

Perhaps there is a young lady at the church you go to, and you feel a pull to ask her on a date. Ask her, and see where it goes.

Perhaps a coworker invites you out for drinks after work. Go, and perhaps make a new friend. Or maybe you feel a pull to ask the coworker yourself. Do it.

Perhaps some part of your work particularly interests you, and you want to dive deeper into it to further your craft and improve your prospects. Investigate, and get better at that area.

Perhaps you have always been interested in learning woodworking, and a light conversation after Mass revealed that another parishioner is good at it. Ask him how to learn it.

Perhaps a store with character catches your eye one day. Pull over and investigate, perhaps talk to the proprietor.

With all of these, the whole point is that you don’t know what will happen. The gentle tug is a movement of the Holy Spirit. These gentle tugs are the things that will show you what the plans for you are, and learning to listen to them and follow their promptings is the chief task of your life right now. They will lead you to your purpose, even though you do not know where it will end.

For we do not know where it will all end. We do not see how the Lord will bring all these disparate coincidences into a tapestry. We do not see how our lives, which twist and turn so much, can be made into a single coherent narrative. We do not see how even the many deaths we go through on a daily basis can, in the light of God, be turned to good.

But blessed are they who have not seen, and yet still believe.

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