Happy Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, Patron of our Province, the Archdiocese of Madras-Mylapore and the sub-continent India. In every generation, the Holy Spirit stirs some hearts to go beyond borders – geographical, emotional, and spiritual in pursuit of the Gospel. As we reflect on the life of one of the greatest missionaries to India and the enduring legacy of that extraordinary missionary, St. Thomas the Apostle, we are invited to rediscover the fire of our own vocation and identity. This fire, though centuries apart, finds a contemporary echo in the Salesian charism, a youthful dynamism inspired by St. John Bosco, shaped not only for evangelization and education but ultimately for transformation.

 

Let us enter a space where ancient apostolic courage meets modern missionary creativity. In this circular, we reflect on the life of St. Thomas the Apostle, the missionary sent by Jesus and the Salesian foreign missionaries who came to India taking on the charism of St. John Bosco. These Salesian missionaries have built the Salesian India, in particular some have worked for the establishment of our Chennai province and its growth. It is reasonable that we remember them gratefully as the INM marches towards its centenary celebration. The characteristics that strike out in these missionaries are the inner traits that fortify their calling, the deep sources of their passion for the Gospel and the missionary zeal of St. Thomas that keeps echoing in the Salesian charism, as they lived it out in our Province.

 

Life of a Missionary and the Life of St. Thomas the Apostle

A missionary lives in a paradox of exile and belonging. Sent forth by the Church, the missionary often leaves home but finds a family in every corner of the world. Missionary life is marked by listening deeply, loving generously and learning endlessly. It is not a job but a journey of faith and hope, not a project but a presence in charity. They resemble the unconditional love of God for the people they dedicate their lives. Missionaries become bridges between cultures, between the broken and the whole, between God and people. 

 

St. Thomas, often remembered for his doubt, is ironically the Apostle of courage. Tradition holds that he journeyed far, reaching the coasts of India, where he sowed the seeds of faith that still blossom today. His life was one of bold inquiry and personal conviction. He would not believe second hand but demanded a first-hand personal encounter and when he encountered Christ, he gave his whole life in response, even to the point of martyrdom.

 

Characteristics that Help to be Faithful to One’s Calling

To remain faithful to one’s calling, particularly in the context of missionary discipleship, requires a heart formed by grace and shaped by ongoing transformation. This fidelity begins with what might seem like a paradox: rooted restlessness. The faithful disciple is deeply grounded in God’s presence, yet never static. This “holy unrest” is not a sign of dissatisfaction, but rather a divine stirring that propels the soul outward in mission. As St. Paul writes, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16). It is this deep conviction of being sent that keeps the missionary heart young and searching. Evangelii Gaudium reminds us, “The joy of the Gospel is for all people: no one can be excluded” (EG 23), and this truth fuels a longing to go beyond comfort zones, knowing that to rest entirely in God means to be continually moved by His Spirit. St. Thomas the Apostle exemplified this rooted restlessness. After encountering the Risen Christ, he was not content to remain within the familiar bounds of Jerusalem or Galilee. Tradition holds that he journeyed Far East, eventually reaching India, where he proclaimed the Gospel with fervour. His deep-rooted faith in the Risen Lord was the wellspring of his courage to move outward, even into lands unknown to him.

 

Building upon this movement outward is the virtue of incarnational humility, the capacity to enter another’s world not as a superior, but as a servant. Just as Christ “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” (Phil 2:7), so too must the faithful missionary adopt a posture of humility. The Incarnation teaches us that presence precedes proclamation and solidarity precedes instruction. In Ad Gentes, the Second Vatican Council emphasized this incarnational model: “The Church must be present in these groups through the witness of the lives of individual Christians and the whole community” (AG 11). This kind of humility demands that one listens before speaking, learns before teaching and walks alongside before leading. It is a humility that recognizes evangelization not as conquest but as companionship. St. Thomas, arriving in India a land foreign in language, custom, and belief did not come with an attitude of dominance but a genuine dialogue. He is said to have built communities not by force but by forming bonds, respecting the cultural richness of the people he encountered. His acceptance and adaptation to the local context is still evident today in the vibrant Syro-Malabar Church, which proudly claims him as its founder.

 

Such humility allows one to cultivate a Eucharistic vision, seeing every person and place as sacred. The Eucharist is not confined to the altar but radiates into the world, transfiguring it with Christ’s presence. “The world is charged with the grandeur of God,” wrote Gerard Manley Hopkins, a vision the missionary must carry into every encounter. Pope Benedict XVI in Sacramentum Caritatis asserts, “The Eucharist increases our union with Christ and with his Church. Consequently, it renews our life in Christ and commits us to the poor” (SC 88). To see Christ in “every table, every tear, every triumph” is to allow the sacramental imagination to inform our every action and interaction. This Eucharistic vision ensures that mission is not a task but a transformation of both the world and the one sent. St. Thomas, even when grappling with doubt, ultimately came to recognize Christ in His wounds and divinity in His brokenness. “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28) is a declaration that sees Christ present, whole and holy, even in the fragility of suffering. In India, St. Thomas is believed to have consecrated places of worship with this Eucharistic faith, drawing people to recognize Christ in their midst, not merely in doctrine, but in the daily reality of life.

This vision, however, can only be sustained through persistent surrender, that is, the quiet, daily ‘yes’ that endures even when clarity fades or the path grows obscure. As Christ prayed to the Heavenly Father in Gethsemane, “Not my will, but yours be done” (Lk 22:42), so too must the disciple continually offer himself. Faithfulness is forged in the desert as much as in the harvest; it is during the times of invisibility, obscurity, or even rejection that the missionaries must renew their trust. Redemptoris Missio affirms this inner posture: “Missionary activity demands a specific spirituality, which applies in a special way to all those called to missionary work” (RM 87). That spirituality is one of continual surrender, where success is measured not by numbers but by fidelity. In this way, surrender becomes strength, and obscurity becomes the crucible of sanctity. St. Thomas’ mission ended in martyrdom, pierced by a lance. He likely endured loneliness, resistance, and cultural alienation. Yet he remained, surrendered to his mission until the very end. His fidelity amidst difficulty shows that perseverance is itself a form of proclamation: a silent homily written in the language of self-gift.

 

Finally, this surrender gives rise to compassionate curiosity, a disposition of the heart that asks, seeks, and listens, not to challenge or undermine, but to understand and love more deeply. When St. Thomas said, “Unless I see... I will not believe” (Jn 20:25), he was not rebelling; he was reaching. Compassionate curiosity means engaging the questions of the heart with the mind of Christ. It means asking the hard questions not out of scepticism, but out of a desire to see God more clearly in all things. Pope Francis, in Christus Vivit, encourages this form of holy inquiry: “Keep searching... and make room for the Lord to surprise you” (CV 299). A curious faith is not a weak faith, it is a dynamic, living faith, open to discovery and transformation. When such curiosity is animated by compassion, it becomes a force for healing, for dialogue, and for deeper communion. St. Thomas, often nicknamed “Doubting Thomas,” actually mirrors the sincere seeker who brings his questions before Christ. His journey from doubt to declaration illustrates that asking the difficult questions can lead to deeper faith. His courage to question gave him a personal encounter with the Risen Lord, an encounter that would shape not only his destiny but the destiny of the countless souls he would later evangelize.

 

Together, these five characteristics form a symphony of faithful response to God’s calling. Rooted restlessness drives the heart outward in mission. Incarnational humility ensures that this mission is one of presence, not dominance. Eucharistic vision sanctifies the world and those in it. Persistent surrender sustains the soul through dry seasons and doubt and Compassionate curiosity allows the heart to stay open to the ever-unfolding mystery of God’s work in the world. St. Thomas the Apostle stands as a profound witness to this integrated path of discipleship one who, despite his doubts and weaknesses, answered his calling with courage, humility, and a heart ever open to the living Christ.

 

What makes the Missionaries Passionate about Preaching God’s Word? 

Basically, the missionaries are rooted in a dynamic call and sustained by faithful characteristics, and the passion to preach God’s Word finds its fire in something even more intimate: a personal encounter with Christ. For missionaries like St. Thomas the Apostle, it is not merely the words of Jesus that move them, but His wounds, His voice, His presence, that is, Christ as encountered and experienced, not just studied. This encounter with Christ that personalizes the call transforms mission from a task into a love story. “We love because He first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19), and it is this first love that makes disciples burn with zeal. When Thomas placed his hands in Christ’s wounds, he did not just verify a resurrection; he received a commission. His exclamation, “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28), was a personal surrender, a heart set ablaze. Pope Benedict XVI wrote in Deus Caritas Est, “At the origin of being a Christian, there is no ethical decision or lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person” (DCE 1). Missionaries like Thomas are not drawn by obligation but by the gravitational pull of divine love. St. John Bosco, too, emphasized this in his ministry with youth: “Without confidence and love, there can be no true education.” It is this love, first received, that drives the urgency to preach, to serve, to go forth.

From this encounter springs an ability to live with the wound and the wonder, that is, to find God not only in joy but in pain. Thomas, invited to touch Christ’s wounds, reminds us that mission often begins at the intersection of suffering and revelation. The missionary, too, must touch the world’s wounds: poverty, loneliness, injustice, unbelief etc. But these wounds are not voids, they are veils, behind which the presence of Christ often hides. Gaudium et Spes affirms, “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age... are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ” (GS 1). Thomas, tradition tells us, faced rejection, hardship and ultimately martyrdom. Yet he did not retreat from the woundedness of the world. He embraced it and in doing so, discovered Christ anew. St. John Chrysostom, speaking of Thomas, said, “It was not doubt, but a desire to believe more deeply that made him probe the wounds of Christ.” The passion to preach grows when the missionary dares to see wounds not as obstacles but as sacred entry points into the mystery of God.

This capacity to face pain is anchored in hope in human potential – a vision that sees beyond sin to the soul’s longing for redemption. A true missionary, like Thomas, sees not merely people in need of saving, but persons already loved, already known by God and full of hidden promise. When Thomas arrived in India, he did not treat the people as outsiders to grace but as fellow seekers, already inscribed with the image of God. This hopeful vision echoes Evangelii Nuntiandi, where St. Paul VI wrote, “Evangelization will always contain as the foundation, center and at the same time the summit of its dynamism  a clear proclamation that in Jesus Christ... every person is loved by God” (EN 27). St. John Bosco embodied this deeply; he believed that every young person, no matter how troubled, held within them a “spark of goodness” waiting to be ignited. This hope fuels the missionary heart: it refuses to reduce people to problems and instead calls them to their divine dignity.

Equally sustaining is the joy of spiritual kinship. The friendships born in the field of mission are often deeper than blood, formed across language, land and culture, bound by the Spirit. These relationships serve as proof of the Gospel’s reconciling power. St. Thomas, in establishing Christian communities in India, formed bonds with people utterly different from himself, yet through Christ, they became his brothers and sisters. These spiritual friendships remain the cornerstone of the St. Thomas Christians today. As St. Augustine said, “In this world two things are essential: life and friendship.” Pope Francis echoes this in Fratelli Tutti, writing, “Mission is at once a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people” (FT 281). St. John Bosco, too, knew the power of relationship: his oratories were not institutions, but homes: places of joy, laughter, and belonging. Passion for the Gospel is kept alive when the missionary sees the Church not as an organization, but as a family growing at every table, classroom, and chapel.

Finally, there is a passion found in the beauty of sowing without reaping. In mission, success is often invisible, delayed, or even denied. Yet the missionary heart finds joy not in the harvest but in the planting. Jesus taught, “One sows and another reaps” (Jn 4:37). Thomas likely saw few conversions in his lifetime. Yet the seeds he sowed would blossom into a Church that would endure for millennia. As Lumen Gentium reminds us, “The Church advances on her pilgrimage through the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God” (LG 8). St. John Bosco laboured tirelessly, knowing he would not live to see the global reach of the Salesian mission. But that did not dampen his zeal. As he once said, “Do good while you still have time.” This detachment from outcomes is not resignation; it is pure passion, purified of ego. The missionary works not for applause, but out of love planting even where the ground seems barren, trusting that God alone brings growth.

Together, these five missionary passions: the personal encounter, the sanctity of wounds, the hope in others, the joy of kinship, and the beauty of selfless sowing, kindle a fire that no trial can extinguish. They make the mission not merely a duty, but a delight. In St. Thomas the Apostle, we find a profound model of this fire: a man who questioned, touched, followed, and gave all even unto death so that Christ might be known. His life invites us to do the same: to go where Christ sends, to see as Christ sees, and to love as Christ loves: fiercely, humbly and with joy that endures beyond the grave.  (Reflection to be continued…)

 

Yours affectionately,

Fr. Don Bosco SDB

INM Provincial

Date: 01.07.2025

Place: Chennai – 10

 

Source: INM-LDB/CIR /49/06-2025 (JULY 2025)