faith & trust
The Gospel According to John 20:19–31 (NABRE) focuses on issues of faith and trust in the well-known context of the disciple Thomas’ doubt and pathway to belief. Jesus calls all Christians also to believe, and we well might ask what that belief looks like.
The Greek word πίστις (pistis) is translated as “faith” in this passage, but its more prevalent and more easily accessible meaning emphasized throughout the Gospel According to John is “trust.” In Greek, the two are identical concepts, and the passage from the Gospel According to John marks the thematic culmination of that concept in the Fourth Gospel.
Thomas hits a very understandable stumbling point. In the face of Jesus’ death, he loses trust that everything is going according to plan and that Jesus has all eventualities covered. Thomas loses confidence in Jesus and needs to see Jesus again to regain his confidence. In this sense, Thomas stands in for all of us who—when we don’t understand what’s happening—can struggle to trust that God has everything under control.
The Litany of Trust is a related prayer written by the Sisters of Life (www.sistersoflife.org) asking Jesus for deliverance from the things that hold us bound, and placing our trust in Jesus’ promises.
related topics: belief; believe in Jesus; faith; justification; little faith
you also may like our study of the Gospel According to John
The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, a 25-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, examines the Fourth Gospel’s view of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, with special emphasis on the institution of the sacraments of the Church as the means by which Christians are purified and made holy. This recently revised study includes maps and additional commentary, and takes a closer look at the way in which Jesus relates to individual men and women. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.
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