This is one where I’m a bit of an oddity. Most of the Church of England no longer observes St Thomas’ day today. Common Worship, in keeping with the majority of the Western Church has moved it to July so that it doesn’t get in the way of Advent. Only crusted traditionalists still observe it today.

The dates for the festivals of the Apostles are, so far as I know, almost completely arbitrary so this is the last thing in the world I’d be willing to get into a fight over. We started observing on this date because it’s the one the Prayer Book uses and it gets in the way of the accompanying Bible reading plan to move it.

All that being said, there are a number of ways in which it seems strangely fitting to put St Thomas’ day here. Partly, Thomas’ experience brilliantly underlines the reality of the incarnation. Partly, it means Christmas is sandwiched between festivals that emphasise his cross and resurrection. Both these points are made better and at greater length here and here, on a blog that I’ve often found helpful, if a touch more High Church than me.

The collect for the day emphasises the thing Thomas is best known for – his doubt in the face of the resurrection:

Almighty and everliving God, who for the more confirmation of the faith didst suffer thy holy Apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy Son’s resurrection: Grant us so perfectly, and without all doubt, to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be reproved. Hear us, O Lord, through the same Jesus Christ, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.

It seems to me that this acknowledgement of doubt is actually surprisingly fitting just before a modern Christmas. Perhaps it’s because I once had a particularly severe crisis of doubt at this time of year, but I think Advent and Christmas can be times where a lot of Christians experience doubt that they don’t always acknowledge.

Advent emphasises one of the beliefs about Jesus many Christians feel uncomfortable about, that he will return to judge the world and usher in the New Creation. Few beliefs raise more eyebrows if you drop them into conversation with a non-Christian colleague. Christmas hinges on the miracle which has attracted more scepticism than any other – the Virgin Birth. Even the readings at carol services can raise tricky apologetic questions. Just how do you reconcile Matthew and Luke’s genealogies? Wasn’t Quirinius’ census years after the death of Herod, far too late for Jesus’ birth? Convincing answers are available for all these questions, but preachers rarely have time to address them in their Christmas preaching, which rightly focuses elsewhere.

And beyond all that, it is now the darkest, shortest day of the year. Most people, whatever their trade, are pretty frazzled by now. It’s hardly surprising if people struggle with doubt at this time.

St Thomas’ day is a moment, just before Christmas arrives, where we can acknowledge the reality of doubt. But it’s also a time that reminds us that, though we do not see Jesus with our eyes, we do not have a blind faith. The purpose of John’s account of ‘doubting Thomas’ is to underline the rationality of trusting the Apostles’ eyewitness testimony.

Along with the collect for the day, I also especially love this hymn, written by a former principal of Ridley Hall. I don’t know the tune, Elton, that accompanies this in hymnbooks, but it can be sung to the tune of To Be a Pilgrim, which I think works quite nicely. It weaves together allusions to John 11:16, 14:5 and 20:24-29.

Who dreads, yet undismayed

Dares face his terror;

Who errs, yet having strayed

Avows his error –

Him let St Thomas guide,

Who stirred his fellows’ pride

To move to death beside

Their Lord and Master.

.

Who longs for guidance clear

When doubts assail him,

Nor dares to move for fear

Lest faith should fail him –

For such let Christ’s reply

To his disciple’s cry,

‘I am the Way,’ supply

The light in darkness

.

Who grieves that love lies dead

On fate’s wheel broken;

And stands uncomforted

By any token –

His faith shall be restored

By Christ’s compelling word

When Thomas saw the Lord,

And, seeing, worshipped!

Archbishop J. R. Darbyshire

The image is The Incredulity of Thomas by Caravaggio.