July 3 Mon
“I well understand Thomas' confusion before our Lord, and the marvelous act of faith and love that bursts forth from him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn 20:28). He touched Christ as we do in the Eucharist, when we receive him each day in the sacred Host. And as we touch him in the effectiveness of our apostolate. … Yet, how goes our faith?” St Josemaría

Although he doubted at the start, tradition tells us that afterwards, St Thomas preached the Gospel in India so effectively, that centuries later many still preserved the faith. Today we ask our Lord to strengthen our faith.

God wants to bring about the renewal of the world through the same path that Christ followed, indeed, the path that is Himself. There is nothing magical about Christianity. There are no shortcuts, but everything passes through the humble and patient logic of the grain of wheat that dies to give life, the logic of faith that moves mountains with the gentle strength of God.

This is why God wants to continue to renew humanity, history and the cosmos through a chain of transformations, of which the Eucharist is the sacrament, a mysterious image. Through the consecrated bread and wine, in which his Body and Blood are truly present, Christ transforms us, assimilating us to himself: he involves us in his work of redemption, making us capable, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, of living according to his same logic of self-giving, like grains of wheat united to him and in him. In this way, unity and peace are sown and ripen in the furrows of history, which are the goal towards which we are striving, according to God's plan.

We walk the paths of the world without mirages, without ideological utopias, carrying within us the Body of the Lord, like the Virgin Mary in the mystery of the Visitation. With the humility of knowing that we are simple grains of wheat, we have the firm certainty that faith and the love of God, incarnated in Christ, is stronger than evil, violence and death. We know that God is preparing for all men a new heaven and a new earth, where peace and justice reign; and in faith we glimpse the new world, which is our true homeland.

As the sun sets on our lives, we continue on our journey: with us is Jesus in the Eucharist, the same One that Thomas touched, the Risen One, who said: "I am with you always, to the end of time" (Mt 28:21). Thank you, Lord Jesus! Thank you for your faithfulness, which sustains our hope. Stay with us, for it is already night. "Good shepherd, true bread, O Jesus, have mercy on us: feed us, defend us, lead us to eternal happiness in the land of the living." Amen.