[media presentation below] GospelThink Monday, July 3, St. Thomas, apostle JOHN 20:24-29 Thomas had a difficult time accepting my Resurrection. Prayerthoughts  a. Thomas initially says “I will not believe.”  Are there some parts of my faith that I struggle with? Perhaps I can list them and look up the topics in the Catechism. b. The Lord wishes his disciples “peace.” Do I always bring peace to the situations that I am in or am I more argumentative?   c. Jesus speaks directly to Thomas, telling him to do exactly what Thomas wanted. Often the graces of God allow me to do exactly what I want. Am I sufficiently grateful to God. (This is the task of the meditation.) d. The Lord blesses us when he says that blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed. Perhaps we recite the Nicene Creed pausing at each sentence. e. My prayerthoughts…   Today, I will list the things that I am most grateful for in my life so far. Some Thoughts on the Liturgy THE THOMAS EXPERIENCE          We all experience emptiness at some time in our lives and we look for something to help us take care of the emptiness. We often look for it in things like power, pleasure, drugs, money, alcohol, sex, the good life, whatever. But we remain empty because those material things will never satisfy, no matter how much of them we have.           Our world is ready for what might be called the “Thomas Experience,” that is the time to find the way to overcome the emptiness of life. John closes his Gospel telling us the way to overcome the emptiness in life:           These things are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name. That is, our belief in Jesus can take care of our empty lives. For Thomas, it meant hands-on proof. He did not believe; he had to see it with his own eyes. But once he saw it, after the hands-on proof, life was no longer empty.           For us, too, there must be some sort of hands-on proof so that after it, life will not be empty. It is what makes up the modern “Thomas Experience.” We do not have the hands on proof that Thomas had because ours is based on faith. As Jesus comments: “Blessed are those who have not seen….”—us. So, our hands-on proof is to make ourselves aware that God really is active in our lives. Even with the problems we have, there are solutions. They may not look like solutions, and they may not be the solutions that we want, but God is there—in the death of a friend or tragedy of a family or the like, even, in the evident evil of some situation.           And the way we do that?  Again, John tells us at the end of his Gospel—to honestly believe that Jesus and his teaching in his book and all the books of the Gospels is the answer to emptiness. It is the answer only if we bring ourselves to study what is happening—and there is the key—take the time to honestly think about how God is working. God really is alive and well in our every situation, if we are open to understand it. MEDIA PRESENTATION Song: “Ex’s and Oh’s” — Elle King THE COST OF OVER-CONFIDENCE The Gospel MATTHEW 26:69-75 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. One of the maids came over to him and said, “You too were with Jesus the Galilean.” But he denied it in front of everyone, saying, “I do not know what you are talking about!” As he went out to the gate, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, “This man was with Jesus the Nazorean.” Again he denied it with an oath, “I do not know the man!” A little later the bystanders came over and said to Peter, “Surely you too are one of them; even your speech gives you away.” At that he began to curse and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately a cock crowed. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken: “Before the cock crows you will deny me three times.” He went out and began to weep bitterly.

Gospelthink: Peter was a human being who was too concerned about himself and therefore denied that he knew me. Am I too concerned about myself?

“Well, I had me a boy, turned him into a man. I showed him all the things that he didn’t understand. And then I let him go. Now, there’s one in California who’s been cursing my name ‘cause I found me a better lover in the UK, until I made my getaway. One, two, three, they gonna run back to me ’cause I’m the best baby that they never gotta keep. They always wanna come, but they never wanna leave. Ex’s and the oh’s, they haunt me like ghosts; they want me to love ’em all. They won’t let go.”

Peter’s denial of Jesus is well-known in Christian circles. He had boldly proclaimed to Jesus that he would never deny him, but in a moment of weakness, he did deny him, as Jesus had predicted that he would. There were no doubt many reasons why Peter made the promise originally, but perhaps the principal one was his over-confidence in himself, believing that he would never do such a thing. The problem with over-confidence is that we lose sight of who we are, and we tend to exaggerate our abilities. It is nothing more than selfishness. Bragging about love abilities may seem a far distance from Peter’s denial of Jesus, but in reality, it is the same fundamental problem. The lady in Elle King’s song “Ex’s and Oh’s” thinks that she has the abilities to control lovers: she had lost sight of who she really was and was doing nothing more than allowing selfishness to control her thinking. Although the song does not show it, at one future time in her life, she will end up like Peter in despair. There is an important lesson here for the Christian as well as the person interested in romantic love. Being self-confident is often the single ingredient that distinguishes a successful person from someone less successful. But being over-confident always allows for selfishness to enter into our thinking. We tend to think that we can do anything, so to speak, and actually begin to speak and act with such thinking. It lends itself to self-deception and loss of friendship because people cannot tolerate selfishness. The remedy to over-confidence is objectivity. We must be aware of our human natures, and the selfishness that we all quite naturally possess. We want to always look good in other’s minds, and we tend to think the very best of ourselves. But we must always remember our humanness, and be careful when we make statements that may be nothing more than self-serving.

PRAYER Good and gracious God, we want to be confident in our thinking, but because of our human natures, we tend to be over-confident at times. Give us the grace to know our abilities and the humility to admit our shortcomings. Be with us, we pray.

+++++ GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT Theme: Confidence is important for good living; over-confidence is nothing more than selfishness. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 1. In your opinion, in the Gospel, what would have happened to Peter if he had told the truth? 2. When Judas realized he had betrayed Jesus, he killed himself. In your opinion, why did Peter not do harm to himself? 3. The song alludes to “things that people do not understand,” presumably about romantic love. In your opinion, what is most misunderstood about romantic love in our culture? 4. In reality do ex-lovers want to run back to their once-upon-a-time romantic friend? Yes or no and why? 5 .If the song is true, the men in the song are begging another to love them. What is the principal problem with “begging another” to be a romantic friend? 6. The meditation mentions that over-confidence was the principal problem that Peter had. What were some other problems that led to his denial? 7. What does it mean to “lose sight of who we really are”? 8. Do you agree with the meditation that the lady in the song will end up in despair? Yes or no and why? 9. Why is self-confidence so important to learn? 10. What does it mean to be “objective” in our approach to life? 11. What does the song “Ex’s and Oh’s” teach young people?