Trusting in the Risen Christ through the witness of others

Fr David Howell• April 27, 2025

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19).

What was in the hearts of the eleven apostles when Jesus appeared on the evening of that first Easter Day?

Earlier, upon entering the tomb, John had come to believe that He was risen (John 20:8). Then Peter had seen Jesus one-to-one, and the rest had trusted him (Luke 24:34), but they did not believe the words of the two disciples returning from Emmaus (Mark 16:13). While these two were still speaking, Jesus appeared (Luke 24:36).

After offering them His peace, Jesus rebuked the Eleven for not trusting their two brothers who had hurried all night to Jerusalem from Emmaus (Mark 16:14).

Jesus does not only want us to believe that He is risen, but also desires us to trust others’ faith in Him. This becomes even clearer in the case of Thomas, who refused to share the others’ belief until he had experienced the Risen Jesus directly. Christ is unutterably tender with Thomas, not only recognising Thomas’s own conditions for belief, but even fulfilling them: “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe” (John 20:27). But Jesus calls Thomas – and us – to trust Him even without seeing Him, by relying on others’ testimony: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

Are there witnesses to Jesus’s Resurrection in my life that I do not trust? Let us accept the gentle rebuke of Jesus, as Thomas did, and rely more on the presence of Jesus in others, above all in His Church, since that is how Jesus has chosen to love us and bless us. To trust in Jesus is to trust in His Body, the Church.

Photo: Bernardo Strozzi – The Incredulity of Saint Thomas [c.1620]).