If I were to mention the names of certain disciples to you and ask you to
 write down the first word that comes into your mind, it is unlikely you would all come up with the same words.

If I were to mention the name of Judas
 many of you would write down the word “betray” but not all of you. If I were
 to mention Simon Peter, some of you would write down the word “faith,” but
 not all of you. If I were to mention the names of James and John, some of
 you would write down the phrase “Sons of Thunder,” but not all of you. But
 when I mention the word Thomas, there is little question about the word most
 everyone would write down. It would be the word doubt. Indeed, so closely 
have we associated Thomas with this word, that we have coined a phrase to
 describe him: “Doubting Thomas.”

You may be interested to know that in the first three gospels we are told
 absolutely nothing at all about Thomas. It is in John’s Gospel that he 
emerges as a distinct personality, but even then there are only 155 words 
about him. There is not a lot about this disciple in the Bible but there is
 more than one description.

 When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem the disciples thought that it
 would be certain death for all of them. Surprisingly, it was Thomas who
 said: Then let us go so that we may die with him. It was a courageous
 statement, yet we don’t remember him for that. We also fail to point out
 that in this story of Thomas’ doubt we have the one place in the all the
 Gospels where the Divinity of Christ is bluntly and unequivocally stated. It is interesting, is it not, that the story that gives Thomas his infamous
 nickname is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering
 confession of faith? Look at his confession, “My Lord, and my God.” Not
 teacher. Not Lord. Not Messiah. But God! It is the only place where Jesus is
 called God without qualification of any kind. It is uttered with conviction
 as if Thomas was simply recognizing a fact, just as 2 + 2 = 4, and the sun is in the sky. You are my Lord and my God! These are certainly not the words
 of a doubter.

Unfortunately history has remembered him for this scene where the
 resurrected Christ made an appearance to the disciples in a home in
 Jerusalem. Thomas was not present and when he heard about the event he
 refused to believe it. Maybe he was the forerunner of modern day cynicism.
 Maybe the news simply sounded too good to be true. Thomas said: Unless I
 feel the nail prints in his hands I will not believe. 

Now I cannot help but notice that Thomas has separated himself from the
 disciples and therefore, in his solitude, missed the resurrection
appearance. I think that john is suggesting to us that Christ appears most
 often within the community of believers that we call the church, and when we
 separate ourselves from the church we take a chance on missing his unique
 presence.

But the story doesn’t end here. The second time Jesus made his appearance 
Thomas was present with the disciples and this time he too witnessed the event. This time he believed. What can we learn from the life of Thomas?
1. Jesus did not blame.
2. The most endearing things in life can never be proven.
3. We must move beyond doubt to faith.

Fr Augustine