If Advent is the pregnancy before the delivery at Christmas, then we’ve just about come full term. In only a few days, we will celebrate our Lord’s birth, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Yes, indeed, it’s nearly Christmas! Even after all these years, these centuries, what wonder and surprise Christmas still brings.
But what if the birth of Christ brought us one more surprise? What if, to our surprise, to our amazement, we found out that Jesus had a twin? Now today, twins don’t come as much of a surprise. Prenatal examinations almost always detect a second baby growing inside a mother during her pregnancy.
Today, if twins are on the way, eager parents usually have several months to get a second newborn outfit, a second crib, and a double stroller. But it wasn’t that way in the old days. In the old days, once a mother had delivered that little bundle of joy, it would come as a surprise, even amazement, when the doctor said, “There’s another on the way.”
So, today, prepare to be amazed!
Most of us know St. Thomas only as “Doubting Thomas.” He’s the one who wouldn’t believe the other disciples when they told him that Jesus was no longer dead. He said he would only believe if he touched the nail marks in Jesus’ hands and thrust his hand in His side, where the spear had pierced Him.
Thomas didn’t want to be hurt any more. He knew Jesus had been killed by crucifixion. He didn’t want some desperate tale about a resurrection to fool him into believing what could be a lie. And so we usually think of Thomas only as a skeptic and a doubter.
But he could also show much loyalty and devotion. We heard an example of that in today’s first reading. Word had just come to Jesus that one of his friends, Lazarus, was deathly ill in Bethany. So, Jesus told His disciples that they were going to Bethany to see Lazarus.
But the disciples balked at this idea. For Bethany was in Judea. Only a short time earlier, the religious leaders there had tried to stone Jesus and kill Him. For earlier in Bethany, Jesus had claimed, not only that He existed before Abraham, but that He was also the Lord God, the I Am. This was blasphemy to the Jews. They wanted to stone Jesus for such words. But Jesus eluded them.
For the disciples, to go back to Judea was suicide. But after their discussion, Thomas said, “Let us also go, so we may die with him” (John 11:16). Despite the risk, Thomas was willing to go with Jesus. Even in the face of death, Thomas didn’t want to leave Jesus’ side. Although Thomas, like the rest of the disciples, would later cower in fear, here, at this singular moment, we need to recognize Thomas’ courage and faithfulness.
The name Thomas means “twin.” Sometimes, others simply called him, “Didymus.” That’s the Greek word for twin. And it’s a fitting name for Thomas, for it was Thomas who said, like an inseparable twin, “Let us also go, so we may die with him.”
But “Twin” is also a fitting title for any disciple of Jesus. For Jesus also calls us to be like Him and to have lives that look like His. In that way, we are all twins. We are to die with Him, so we may live with Him. It’s as Jesus said, “If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
So, to be a Christian is to be Christ’s twin. It’s to be crucified with Him. That means we are to drown the old Adam with all its sins and evil lusts. It’s to repent every day and live in our baptism. It’s to lay down our life for others in our daily callings and to be willing to suffer.
Through the water and the Word of holy Baptism, you are also a twin of Jesus, not only in His death, but also in His resurrection. For through your Baptism into His body, you now share in Christ’s risen identity. You are now a little Christ before the throne of heaven. You are someone who bears Christ’s image in this world and even before God the Father. That means you are, by His grace, as pure and holy as Jesus Himself.
Sharing in Jesus’ identity and image, you also share in His life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). Jesus is the firstborn twin who leads the way for you, a second-born twin, out of the womb of death into new and everlasting life.
That’s what Thomas asked about in the second reading. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Jesus has opened a room for you in His Father’s house through His cross and empty tomb.
Jesus is the only doorway into the Father’s house. When you are sharing, by faith, in Christ’s cross and empty tomb, counting yourself as dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus, you have an entrance to your heavenly home.
Thomas would, indeed, share in Jesus’ cross. According to tradition, Thomas went on a missionary journey to preach the Gospel in India. To this day, a Christian community in India claims descent from Christians who were baptized into the Church by the Apostle Thomas.
Tradition also states that Thomas was speared to death for what he preached. For even as Thomas said he wouldn’t believe until he touched the spear mark in Jesus’ side, so it was a spear that Thomas would take in his own body for the name of Jesus. Because of his faith in Christ, the symbol now identified with Thomas is a spear.
In his death, Thomas was a twin of Jesus Christ. He shared in Christ’s death. But, even more, he will also share in Christ’s resurrection. Even now, Thomas’ soul lives with Christ his Savior in heaven, awaiting his body’s resurrection on the Last Day.
Like Thomas, the Holy Spirit has marked you as Christ’s own twin. You have received the sign of the holy cross on both your forehead and your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. Wearing the sign of Christ’s death, you will also wear the crown of life that He has won for you.
Of course, you weren’t born on that first Christmas night, moments after our Savior. You didn’t lie next to him in the manger. Life for you isn’t that bizarre. But in your baptism, you were reborn to die His death, so you may live His life.
So don’t be amazed if you should someday be asked to give the full measure as Thomas did. But, no matter what, live the life of your Twin, Jesus Christ, which is a life of sacrifice, and a life of suffering. But above all, live a life that never ends, a life that will continue forever, never separated from your Twin, Jesus Christ. Amen.
