My Lord and My God!

"My Lord and my God," the famous words of St. Thomas at his encounter with the risen Christ (Jn 20:28)!

What does this exclamation hold for us?
It is the utterance of a heart that sees the Lord face to face. It is the Truth. It is a proclamation of the essence of encountering the living God. It is the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, One in Three Persons.

Moses meets the Lord, and we hear that He is "I AM" (Ex 3:14). Thomas meets the Lord and we hear He is "Lord" and "God," and that He is the personal Lord and God. He is "My Lord and my God" (emphasis added). Such boldness! Look at the difference in the revelation of love! How could we understand Jesus as anything but the fulfillment of the covenant between God and His people? Is not "I AM" quite different from "My Lord and my God," as in, is this not a greater invitation into the mystery of God? Has God not gone further, demonstrated in this most particular way, to show precisely how real His love for us is? Moses saw a glimpse of the back of the Lord, and his face visibly shone (Ex 33:23). The risen Lord Jesus Christ, glorious and triumphant over death, has walked into the room where his Apostles are gathered and extended His hands to Thomas, that he might literally touch where the nails had been. This is the point!

We are not asked to simply acknowledge the mystery of God in His beauty and power... we are invited to put our whole selves, flesh and spirit, into Christ. To literally abide in His body!
But how?

The Church. Where do we enter His Body? In the Sacraments. Where do we encounter His wounds? In the family - the personal and the whole human family. Where do we meet "My Lord and my God?" When we gather to pray; when we call upon the Holy Spirit; and when we dare to pray to Our Father as Jesus taught us.

Oh! The boldness of love!

My Lord and my God! Is this not an exclamation, a proclamation, and yet a prayer? What comes first in a heart that loves? Adoration of the other? Thanksgiving for the other? Sacrifice for the other? The announcement to the world that the other belongs to the one and the one to the other? The total desire to be united to the other in all things, hard and easy, beautiful and painful, interior and exterior, physical and spiritual?

These are all possible. This is the life of the Church! The Spirit, whose mission is inseparable from Christ's, who is given as our Advocate and Consoler - He stirs our hearts and minds to realize the unity of this life of love. It is in the Spirit that we come to a greater reconciliation within ourselves. It is in the power of the Spirit that we are forgiven in the Sacrament of Penance; that we are able to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord in the Eucharist; that we are strengthened for our spiritual journey through prayer and all of the Sacraments. It is in the Spirit that we enter into integrity of self, and find that inner joy that comes from knowing the One who loves us.

It is the Bride of Christ, the Church, His Body, who is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the place where He dwells! It is the Church whom we are, whom we participate in, and who is cleansed and made pure so that she might be presented as spotless to the Bridegroom who has given himself up for her (Eph 5:26-27). Oh! It is the Church who proclaims and prays simultaneously, "My Lord and my God!" It is the heart set on fire, set ablaze at the nearness of the beloved, that worships and adores her King and announces to all the Truth that saves!

If it is not love, if it is not abiding, if it is not the Heart of Christ and the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity that stirs in us such an emphatic response, than what faith do we profess? What creed can we proclaim that does not begin and end with "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life" (Jn 3:16)?

This is what is said by every believer when he prays "My Lord and my God."

That we would accept the invitation, that we would touch His wounds, that we would be brought to humble contrition and be forgiven and healed, that we would continually seek our conversion so that in the end those who see us would say, "Look how they loved Him!" just as we say, "Look how He loved us."

My Lord and my God, have mercy on us.