In Christian iconography, the principal symbol of St. Thomas is the carpenter’s square: a tool of his trade - usually depicted together with a spear: the instrument of his martyrdom. The saint is widely said to have been the apostle to India, and tradition holds that he put his carpentry skills to work building churches on the sub-continent. One particular legend holds that the apostle was commissioned by an Indian king to build a palace, and was given a large sum of money to use for that purpose, while the king was away. But St. Thomas never even began to build the palace; instead he gave all the money away to the poor. On his return home, the king was enraged and had St. Thomas thrown in prison, but Thomas eventually managed to convert the king and win his own release, and carry on with his mission.
There’s an irony, that Thomas’s identifying symbol - the carpenter’s square - is a tool that went un-used in one of his most noteworthy exploits. There’s also a certain irony that this specific tool - the carpenter’s square, which is used to ensure that a right angle is true, a cut is straight and accurate; a tool used to make sure you get something right, to build your building straight, and true, and strong - this tool is the symbol of the most famous “doubter” of the church, who is often thought of as the one who got it wrong.
It puts me in mind of the old carpenter’s adage, “measure twice; cut once.” You measure twice, so that you only have to cut once. You check your work. If what you are cutting is too long, well, the second cut will easily correct the error. But if what you cut is too short, then you have wasted material, and have to start with another piece of wood. Better to measure twice; cut once.
The circumstances of Thomas’s doubting were that he was absent on Easter Day when Jesus appeared to the other disciples, who had all gathered together in a house. But Thomas “was not with them when Jesus came,” according to St. John.
Why wasn’t Thomas there with the others? I suppose it’s possible that he had already given up on the company of the Twelve, and had gone off to find work. It’s a full week after Easter before Jesus appears to them all again, and confronts Thomas about his doubt (“Do not doubt, but believe”). Had Thomas returned to a week of work; a week of measuring twice, and cutting once, making sure that he got it right, that his corners were square, and that his cuts were true?
No wonder that one day during that week, when he ran into the others and they told him that they had seen the Lord, he said that he would not believe unless he saw some proof. Maybe Thomas had spent that week of work not just doubting the resurrection, but questioning everything: his friendship with the Twelve, his confidence in Jesus, his hope that something big and new was about to happen because of Jesus, and his dream that his own life was about to be transformed as a result. Better to get back to work, put your head back on straight, buckle down, and get back to the real world. Better to measure twice and cut once.
Maybe that was the problem. Maybe he had dropped everything and followed Jesus, as the others had, without measuring twice. What do fishermen know about measuring twice? But a carpenter should have known better, even when following another carpenter... especially when following another carpenter. Measure twice; cut once. But Thomas hadn’t measured twice. He had simply and swiftly cast his lot in with Jesus, like the rest of them.
St. John’s depiction of St. Thomas as the lone doubting disciple marks him out as the exception, not only among the Twelve, and the other disciples on that first Easter, but also the exception for the whole church. The message about Thomas - explicitly on Jesus’ lips - is that you should not be like him. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” And, of course, if the church was going to grow back then, and if the church is to exist and grow today, many of us must believe who have not seen the prints of the nails in Jesus’ hands, or placed our hands in his side.
But many of us who are not carpenters have still internalized some version of the carpenter’s adage, “measure twice; cut once.” We don’t want to make a mistake. We don’t want to be wrong. The carpenter’s square is a tool for getting it right, after all: for marking an angle true and square. Should faith be based anything less?
Unfortunately, a lot that might have been said between Jesus and Thomas was left either un-said or un-recorded. I hope that there is more that was said between the two than the short conversation St. John relates. And based on the tradition of prodigious evangelism that Thomas carried out, I suppose that, in fact, he and Jesus might have spoken with each other at length at some point after their initial reunion.
If nothing else, I suspect that Jesus had a conversation with Thomas that went something like this:
“My friend, I see that you have been working again, that you have taken up your tools and that you are laboring as we both once did in a trade we both know. Your labor is good and honest. You can work with your hands, and this is very useful. Indeed, you will need these skills and your tools for the work that lies ahead of you, about which you cannot at the moment possibly imagine.
“You are going out into the world where many people will have heard about me, but have never seen me. You are going out into the world in which the powers-that-be are actively trying to bury the story about me, since burying me did not bring about the result they desired. You are going out into the world in which people do not really want to know the truth, but they will argue about me because, they say, you have no proof. No one you meet will be able to place her fingers into the prints of the nails in my hands. No one you meet will be able to place his hand in the wound in my side. You will ask them to believe what they cannot see for themselves.
“You do not know yet how powerful your witness will be; but I know. You do not know how many people will believe because of you; but I know. You do not know that, although your carpenter’s tools will prove important to your work, they are not in fact, the most important tools you will need, and sometimes they will go entirely un-used.
“I know, I know that now that you have seen me, you are all praise, all belief, all faithfulness. But only days ago, you demanded proof. You needed to see, and to feel, and to touch. Only days ago you refused to believe because you did not see what the others saw.
“But Thomas, from here on out, nearly every other believer is going to be like you, not like the others: they will not have seen, and yet, you will persuade them to believe. Your example will become the rule, not the exception. The pattern of your faith will be come the norm. And people must know and hear, dear friend, that believing is not a function of seeing; faith is not a function of proof. There is nothing to measure, and nothing to cut. You have been reaching for the wrong tools.
“For faith is a gift, dear Thomas. And it is a gift that has been given to you. The only question now is whether or not you will accept the gift of faith, whether or not you will use the gift of faith, whether or not you will trust the gift of faith. What is so for you will be so for every other person you meet, outside the Twelve. You will have one thing to offer, one thing to teach: that faith is a gift that anyone can accept. And that when you do accept it, your life changes, you become more than you ever dreamed you could be, and you go further than you ever thought you could go, and the old gifts you had been given, like the old tools you possessed, can be used for new and wonderful purposes. Faith is a gift, dear friend, and it is a gift that has been given to you. And your faith is the gift by which you will build something that is true, and square, and strong. So the gift of your faith is a gift you must accept, a gift you must embrace, and gift you must use.
“How can this be? Since your faith seems weak and insufficient to the task? Remember that all things are possible with God. And you, dear doubting Thomas, you will bring blessings to many who have not seen and yet will believe.”
The legacy of St. Thomas was not to go about teaching people to measure twice; cut once. It was to show that faith is a gift that anyone can accept, even if you stumble, and get it wrong the first time. If you get it wrong, you don’t have to worry about making a second cut if your first cut was too long, or about creating costly waste by cutting too short.
You just accept the gift, maybe little by little, maybe all at once. You accept the gift; and you believe.
Preached by Fr. Sean Mullen
11 April 2021
Saint Mark’s, Locust Street, Philadelphia
