“”In the evening you say, “It will be fine; there’s a red sky,”
and in the morning, “Stormy weather today; the sky is red and overcast.”
You know how to read the face of the sky,
but you cannot read the signs of the times.” (Matthew 16, 2:3)
Today we celebrate St. Thomas, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, known as ‘the incredulous’. I must say that this year, with the extreme temperatures in my country and in countries of friends and family, I realized how disbelieving I had been. Many of us believed that the climate emergency was a theory of scientific reports and no more.
And now that the heat has reached 41ºC in cities in Spain and Argentina, 53.7ºC in cities in Pakistan and 45ºC average in Mexico, we began to believe that it was not fake news, that really the planet and we are getting sick.
Like Thomas after the Resurrection of our Lord, we too are incredulous:
“So the other disciples said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord,’ but he answered, ‘Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you,’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him: You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” (John 20, 24:29)
Which other signs are we looking for? Why do we find it so hard to believe? Maybe because it terrifies us and we prefer to deny it, maybe because we feel helpless… or we truly believe that it is just one more of so many fake news and political and economic conspiracies.
However, the signs are already here. It is a matter of opening our senses to the testimonies of sisters and brothers who are migrating for lack of water, food and security. And like Thomas we need to feel their wounds, listen to their cry, heed their ‘clamor’ as Laudato Si’ repeats to us.
And not to remain in lamentation and anxiety – what a temptation! – but to respond to our reality knowing that “the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you” and that “the Kingdom of God is already among you”. Doesn’t this fill us with hope?
For just as we listen to the cries and despair of our brothers and sisters and of nature, we can also listen to the hope that God always inspires in us, so that we may be, like Thomas, witnesses of that hope, of resurrection, of life. So that we may come out of the confinement of the desolation that so many losses cause us, and go to announce that it is not the end, that it is not too late: through our service, our lifestyle and our attitude of caring for life before any other interest.