John 11:1-27

Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am
glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us
also go, that we may die with him.” (11:14-16)

Because of the way Thomas first responded to news of Jesus’
resurrection from the dead, he is often called Thomas the Doubter,
as if this were his eternal nickname. The way Thomas responds
to Jesus in today’s Gospel is endearing. I consider him, in this
moment, the patron saint of pessimists—those of us who prefer to be
surprised by happy endings.

And yet Thomas couples this pessimism with resolution and loyalty:
“Let us also go, that we may die with him.” This, I think, is the purest
glimpse of the soul within Thomas. We see a man willing to take
his incomplete understanding, and his stumbling belief, and express
them as proper confidence in the character and identity of the
Lord Jesus.

When I pray, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief,” I remember Thomas
and love him.

—Douglas LeBlanc