This reflection on St. Thomas the Apostle was shared on Thursday December 21, 2023, followed by an invitation for others to discover the divine light by simply snapping a twig and holding a stone as part of an interfaith gathering that included Sufi dance, body movement, poetry, and the powerfully sonorous vibrations of the gong.
This darkest day of the year was chosen by Western Christians to commemorate St. Thomas the Apostle whose doubt kept him “in the dark” while the rest of the apostles enjoyed faith in the light of the Resurrection. However, we can appreciate how the Eastern Orthodox Christians honor the apostle’s honest questioning and celebrate him as “St. Thomas the Believer,” who was invited to touch the tangible flesh of the Cosmic Christ. This same Thomas was said to have travelled farther East to southern India, where some of his followers today still boast the name “St. Thomas Christians.” Finally, this same Thomas has been associated with a collection of some of the most hidden, dark, and dazzling wisdom sayings of Jesus known as The Gospel of Thomas, an ancient text discovered in the darkness of the earth by an Arab peasant named Muhammed who was digging for fertilizer in an Egyptian cave less than a hundred years ago. It is in this Gospel that we discover one of the most mysterious and earth-affirming sayings of Jesus, a saying that resonates with this land called “The Reach.” According to the Western Saint of the Winter Solstice, “Jesus said, ‘I am the light that is within all things. I am all: from me all things have come into being, and to me all things reach. Split a piece of wood, I am there. Lift up a stone, and you will find me there’” (Logion 77). This Winter Solstice saint of the West invites us to discover the cosmic light of Christ in the simple act of splitting a twig or feeling the weight of a stone, a simple act that connects us to the earth and our bodies, a simple act that recalls the ancient Western wisdom of the divine light within all things, sometimes shining most powerfully on the darkest day.
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 