The majority of Roman Catholics today celebrate the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle on July 3, since this is its date in the modern (Novus Ordo) liturgical calendar. However, until 1969, this feast day was always celebrated on December 21 every year, and was the very last feast day in the liturgical calendar before the Nativity of Our Lord at Christmas. December 21 is still the Feast of St. Thomas in many of the non-Roman, Eastern liturgies and Churches, as well as in places where the Traditional Roman Rite and calendar are used. The placing of this feast of the Apostle Thomas right before Christmas in the liturgical calendar was truly an act of genius and of divine inspiration, since there is a profound link between St. Thomas the Apostle, Christmas, and the Eucharistic Mystery.
St. Thomas was not present when Our Lord first appeared to His Apostles. When the Apostles told Thomas of the appearance of the Risen Christ to them, Thomas doubted:
19 Now when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them: Peace be to you.
20 And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord.
21 He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.
22 When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
23 Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 The other disciples therefore said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them: Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: Peace be to you.
27 Then he saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing.
28 Thomas answered, and said to him: My Lord, and my God.
29 Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.
(John 20:19-29, Douay-Rheims)
Verse 25 from the above chapter of the Gospel of St. John has earned the Apostle the unfortunate name of "Doubting Thomas." However, it is obviously not the doubt of Thomas that led the Church to consider him to be a Saint: it was his transformation from a Doubting Thomas to a Believing Thomas, from a man who doubted to a man who embraced the Faith and believed.
The genius behind the Catholic Church's inspiration to place the Feast of St. Thomas as the last feast day of the liturgical year before Christmas highlights in a very particular way the reality of the Incarnation. For Thomas, he initially doubted the Resurrection because He did not understand the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Our Lord's Divinity was hidden or veiled behind His suffering humanity. And because Thomas was fixated on the human nature of Jesus, He refused to believe that He was raised from the dead — forno human body, once deceased, can rise again. Such an action is contrary to human nature and the biological laws that govern it. This is what led Thomas the Apostle to say, "Unless I see ... I will not believe." These words of Thomas are, in fact, an anti-Creed. In the Creed we recite at Holy Mass on Sundays and high feasts, we begin with the word, "Credo": I believe. Thomas, on the other hand, said, "Non credam": I will not believe. Thomas failed to believe in the Divinity of Christ, which led him to deny the possibility of Our Lord's bodily Resurrection.
At Christmas, in the manger of Bethlehem, the Divinity of Christ was also hidden — once again behind His human nature. While it was Christ's suffering humanity that acted as the "veil" of His Divinity for St. Thomas after the Resurrection, it was Our Lord's frail and fragile humanity that veiled the power of His Divinity in that manger of Bethlehem. This is important because it shows two of the greatest obstacles that people have in accepting the Divinity of Christ. The first: that God can suffer and die on a Cross; the second: that God can become fragile and weak, like a little babe who is helpless. How can God suffer? How can God become weak? These two questions can only be answered in one way: because of love!
Love was the ultimate cause of the Passion and Death of Christ; and love is also the cause of the Incarnation. Love hung Jesus on the Cross, and love lay Jesus in the manger. The first is clear by the words of Our Lord in the Gospels:
No man taketh [my life] away from Me: but I lay it down of Myself. For I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. -John 10:18
In the manger, the Shepherds arrived from their fields early on Christmas morn. Their arrival is commemorated in the sacred liturgy by the Mass of Christmas at Dawn. This Mass, tragically, is almost never celebrated in parish churches around the world. Alas! it is a sad thing when convenience and ease in our parish liturgical schedules are considered to be more important than fidelity and truth. The almost universal suppression of the Mass of Dawn on Christmas morning is very telling in terms of the level of Faith (or lack thereof) in the modern Church today.
When the Shepherds arrived at the manger on Christmas morning, and when the Magi would arrive some twelve days later on Epiphany, both these groups saw in that little babe wrapped in swaddling clothes not just a human baby who was destined for great things. They recognized in Him the long-awaited Messiah; and even beyond that, God incarnate. In The Nativity Story film (which is not 100% accurate, granted), there is a touching scene in which one of the Magi takes the Divine Infant in his hands and cries out these words:
God in human flesh! God in human flesh!
He may as well have cried out loud the words of St. Thomas on the 8th day after the Resurrection:
My Lord and my God!
The Shepherds and the Magi were able to see beyond the veil of Christ's frail humanity the reality of His Divine nature. But it was not their physical, natural eyes that allowed them to do this: it was the eyes of Faith!
Mysterium Fidei: The Mystery of Faith
At the very words of Consecration at every Holy Mass in the Traditional Roman Rite (and just after the Consecration as a "memorial acclamation" in the modern liturgy), the priest says, "Mysterium Fidei" (the Mystery of Faith). These words do not refer to the Second Coming of Christ, as is misleadingly suggested in the contemporary memorial acclamations (We proclaim Your Death....until you come again). The Mystery of Faith refers to the Consecration itself, which is why it is (correctly) considered to be a part of the words of Consecration of the Chalice in the traditional rite, instead of coming after the Consecration. The Mystery of Faith is Christ's Real Presence in the bread and wine that have become changed (transubstantiated) into the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ on the Altar.
Two thousand years of Catholic Tradition have developed at great length the mystical parallel between the Incarnation at Christmas in the manger and the Consecration at every Holy Mass on every Catholic Altar. This explains the appropriateness of reading the Prologue of St. John's Gospel ("and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us") at the end of almost every Mass in the 1962 Missal. This Eucharistic Mystery of Faith helps the faithful to "see Christ" truly present in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Thus, there is an interesting spiritual correspondance between the Eucharistic Mystery, the Christmas Mystery, and the Paschal Mystery:
At Christmas, Jesus' Divinity is hidden behind the veil of His fragile humanity;
on Good Friday, Christ's Divinity is hidden behind the veil of His suffering humanity; and
at every Mass, Our Lord's Divinity and His humanity are hidden behind the veil of the accidents (appearances) of mere bread and wine.
Each of these three events (Christmas, Easter, and Holy Mass) contains the Mystery of Faith which, in its proper sense, is the reality of the Incarnation: God truly became man!
The My Lord and my God of St. Thomas in the Octave of Easter, the My Lord and my God of the Shepherds and the Magi on Christmas and at Epiphany, and the My Lord and my God of all the faithful at every Holy Mass at the moment of Consecration, are, in reality, the same Act of Faith, proclaiming the same Mystery of Faith.
We "see" Christ's Divinity in the manger and on the Cross, and we "see" His Divinity and His humanity on the Altar at Holy Mass, only through the eyes of Faith. Faith helps us to "see the invisible."
And this is the reason underlying the Church's profound wisdom in placing the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle on December 21, as the last feast day celebrated before Christmas. "Christmas" is Christ's Mass. So let us imitate the Shepherds and the Magi, as well as St. Thomas the great Apostle of Faith, and at every Mass fall on our knees and at the moment of Consecration cry out in our hearts:
Dominus meus et Deus meus!
My Lord and my God!
