The one great insight about St. Thomas himself, which comes to us from the history of St. Thomas in Babylonia and Índia, is that he was a fearless evangelist and a great builder of churches. Those people in the modern world who would accept Christianity but would reject the church (i.e. assembly or local congregation) as the central human instrument in the strategy of God have divorced themselves from Apostolic tradition. Were the Apostles to return to earth today, they would have little time for those who imagine there can be a churchless Christanity. Such “Christianity”, if we even dare call it that, is incapable of survival.
If we would have Christianity survive, our first loyalty must be to the One whom St. Thomas called ”My Lord and my God”, and secondly to the only divinely ordained institution on earth, the local assembly or congragation oh His peolple.
Comentários
Mas também é daqueles casos em que não se pode ser simplista. Parece que já estou a imaginar algumas mentes a magicar que, se a pé, Tomé chegou à Índia, com a tecnologia de hoje, o Evangelho já devia ter "alcançado" Marte.
O fulgor e a centralidade da vontade de comunicar o Evangelho, esses são para guardar.