St Thomas

Today is the feast of Thomas the apostle. As I was watching EWTN this morning the priest was giving a homily on Thomas and his statement of faith on putting his fingers into Jesus hands and his hand into Jesus’ side and it became very real to me and it was I who was touching Jesus wounds. Father went on further to speak of Mother Teresa and how she served Christ by serving a poor man who was dying and had lived on the street most of his life. I began to realize that those who think themselves to be the enemies of the Church are the incarnation of the wounded Christ and as such I could love them. “My Lord and my God”.

Childhood

I was a little boy with a reasonably happy childhood. One day an image caught my eye and captured my imagination. I saw the sun streaming through venetian blinds casting fingers of light on a gold couch that also had alternating stripes of velvet and sateen gold. Ever since I have been captivated by the sun casting fingers of light on a wall or on other things. Once when a friend and I had fled to Dallas to escape Hurricane Rita, we went to a nursing home to which his mother had been taken. While visiting I saw an old black man sitting in a wheel chair and fingers of light were falling on his face. I asked his permission to photograph him and he consented. I am sitting in my chair now and watching the fingers of light reach out to a mirror on the wall in the dining area. As they reach, shadows of branches pass across the light like fingers strumming a harp or guitar and it plays a melody of harmony and comfort in my soul. I feel safe and loved and protected.