The Grace of Divine Encounters - 10 November 2024

Today we contemplate three powerful passages of Scripture that speak to us about authentic encounters with the living God and their transformative power in our lives. We begin with Thomas – blessed Thomas, whose doubt became the vessel for our faith.

In that upper room, behind locked doors, the disciples huddled in fear. Christ appears, showing His wounds – wounds that become not signs of defeat, but windows of grace through which Thomas would eventually proclaim that highest confession of faith: "My Lord and my God!" How many of us, like Thomas, have needed to see to believe? Yet Christ tells us, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

This encounter reminds us of another dramatic meeting – that of Saul on the road to Damascus, which we hear about in Galatians. Here was a man who thought he knew God, who was certain of his righteousness, until he was struck blind by the very Truth he was persecuting. Like Thomas, Saul's encounter with the risen Christ transformed him completely. From persecutor to Apostle, from one who sought to destroy the Church to one who would build it through suffering and sacrifice.

But beloved, what do these divine encounters mean for us today? The answer lies in our third passage – the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Here we see that true encounter with God must always lead to encounter with our neighbor. The priest and Levite in the parable had their religious knowledge, their ritual purity, their theological certainty – but they failed to see Christ in the wounded man by the roadside.

It was the Samaritan – the outsider, the heretic in the eyes of the Jews – who truly saw, who was moved with compassion, who reached out in love. His encounter with human suffering became a divine encounter, an expression of the very love of God.

We are called to bring together these three aspects of Christian life: like Thomas, to move from doubt to faith through personal encounter with Christ; like Paul, to allow that encounter to completely transform our lives and purpose; and like the Good Samaritan, to express that transformation through concrete acts of love and mercy.

Today, Christ still comes to us behind our locked doors of fear and doubt. He still meets us on our misguided roads to Damascus. And He still lies waiting in the wounded stranger by the roadside. Will we touch His wounds? Will we hear His voice? Will we bind His injuries?

Let us pray that God will give us the courage of Thomas to confess our doubts, the humility of Paul to accept transformation, and the compassion of the Samaritan to serve Christ in all whom we meet.

For to Him belongs all glory, honor, and worship, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.