From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   December 21st - St. Thomas the Apostle   
      
   St. Thomas was ordered by Our Lord to go to India, which he did in the   
   company of Abbanes, a provost of one of the kings of India who had come to   
   Caesarea looking for an architect. After dealing with this King and building   
   a palace for him, not on earth, but in Heaven by giving his treasure to the   
   poor, and after converting multitudes in India through his innumerable   
   miracles, Thomas headed to Upper India.   
      
   There he converted Queen Migdonia and her sister to the Catholic Faith. From   
   then on, they refused to lie with their pagan husbands. The King became   
   furious and ordered that Thomas be brought before him, his hands and his   
   feet bound. He was commanded to reconcile the wives to their husband. But   
   Apostle answered the King saying that he could not do this so long as he   
   professed a false faith.   
      
   Irate, the King commanded that pieces of burning iron be brought forth and   
   that the Apostle should stand on them in his bare feet. And immediately, by   
   the will of Our Lord, a spring of water sprang up and quenched the iron.   
      
   Next, the King, following the counsel of his brother-in-law Carisius, had   
   him thrown into a fiery furnace, but miraculously it was made so cold that   
   the next day he issued out all safe, without harm.   
      
   Then Carisius said to the King: "Command him to sacrifice to the god of the   
   sun. That will bring down on him the wrath of his God, who so far has been   
   protecting him." They tried to force Thomas to do this, but the Apostle   
   responded that the devil was in the idol, and that God would break it to   
   pieces the moment he would approach it. And so it happened.   
      
   After that miracle, the high priest killed St. Thomas piercing him through   
   with a sword. The King and Carisius did not convert, but fled away, for they   
   saw that the people would avenge the Apostle.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   Our Lord said that the Apostles would work more and even greater miracles   
   than He Himself did: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on   
   me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall   
   he do; because I go unto my Father (John 14:12). Why did He say this? What   
   principle is behind these words?   
      
   It is not easy to respond with precision to this question, but among many   
   answers, there is one worthy of attention.   
      
   A person who saw Our Lord Jesus Christ and heard the words that issued from   
   His divine mouth already experienced a kind of special miracle, which was to   
   see with his own eyes the Incarnate God. Our Lord's presence was so   
   supernatural, so divine, so out of proportion to any human measure that for   
   a man of faith, nothing else would be necessary to believe in His divinity.   
   His presence was more than any miracle imaginable.   
      
   For this reason He censured those who were asking for miracles. He addressed   
   them as a "faithless and perverse generation" who only believe when they see   
   miracles. Thus, it is a blessing to believe without miracles. St. Thomas   
   also received a similar criticism from Our Lord: "Because thou hast seen me,   
   Thomas, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and have   
   believed" (John 20:29).   
      
   This selection mentions some of St. Thomas' astonishing miracles in India.   
   He worked one miracle after another, but still the King did not convert. His   
   mind was made up and he did not want to believe. In the end, he remained an   
   unbeliever and allowed his high priest to kill St. Thomas. One miracle, two   
   miracles, many miracles were not enough for him. When he was defeated by the   
   evidence of the miracles, he became an accomplice to the murder of St.   
   Thomas.   
      
   This mentality is shared by those who are not satisfied with normal graces,   
   but are always asking for miracles. In appearance, they are thirsty for   
   miracles, but at depth they are too lazy to open their souls to grace. If   
   God would give a miracle, it would not satisfy them. They would become more   
   hardened, and even reject the saint who worked the miracle. They share in   
   some way the psychology of the pagan King.   
      
   This leads us to consider the depth of human wickedness. Man stained by   
   original sin and excessively complacent with his actual sins has a strong   
   tendency to close his soul to grace, even to miracles. Often nothing but   
   very exceptional graces can touch a soul like this.   
      
   Another symptom of such hardness is when a person, like the King in India,   
   is subject to superstitions. I knew a person with a great vocation who came   
   to our fight for the Church but never had a true generosity toward Our Lady.   
   He ended by going astray. He was a superstitious man, always carrying an   
   amulet that he believed had occult powers. I don't think his defection was   
   caused by the malefic power of the amulet. I think that by relying on   
   magical powers he rejected the grace and disregarded the rich supernatural   
   help the Church places at our disposition.   
      
   A point also worthy of consideration is the attitude of St. Thomas regarding   
   his previous infidelity. He was unfaithful when he doubted the Resurrection   
   of Our Lord. He was chastised for that: he was the only Apostle who was not   
   present at the death of Our Lady. He arrived late, when Our Lady was already   
   starting her Assumption in the air. With a marvelous manifestation of her   
   tenderness for him, she took off her girdle and let it fall for him. He was   
   chastised, but at the same time she inundated him with her tenderness.   
      
   St. Thomas converted because of her sweetness as well as Our Lord's severity   
   and became a truly penitent soul. What is a truly penitent soul?   
      
   It is one who committed a bad action, but with shame and sadness repents of   
   the evil he did and, when the occasion presents itself he takes advantage of   
   it to admit his bad action. He is happy to humiliate himself in public and   
   accuse himself of the evil that he committed. He hates his sin and wants   
   others to hate it also. This is the profile of the truly penitent soul.   
   Regarding sins of purity, this rule only applies for those sins that are   
   public and notorious for obvious reasons.   
      
   Even after this person makes expiation for his fault and practices acts of   
   virtue, he always has before him the sin he committed. This is what David   
   sang in one of his penitential psalms: "Peccatum meum contra me est   
   semper" - my sin is always before me. That is, I hate my sin, it will stand   
   there facing me all my life, and only my death will annihilate it.   
   Repentance is a swelling hatred for the evil that one has done. Insofar as a   
   man comes to understand the consequences of his bad action, he is   
   increasingly sorrowful. To be implacable toward ourselves is one of the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)