A funny bone. . .

As I have written before, to me relics are a strange curiosity at best and an embarrassment to Christianity at worst.  In Lutheran history, the vast collection of relics by Frederick the Wise turned from something to be proud of into a foolish waste of funds.  I am sure that I read somewhere what he ended up doing with the odd collection but it did not end up being displayed for the faithful to earn merits by their devotion -- that is for sure.  But what a Lutheran ended up regretting remains a source of pride and a treasure for Rome.  Why?

I recently read somewhere that Rome boasts a bone from the index finger of St Thomas the Apostle is located here. It is said that this is the same finger that he inserted into the side of the Risen Christ.   Indeed, there is an almost complete skeleton of him!  Tradition has it that Saint Thomas was buried in India until the 3rd century when his bones were dug up and transported to Edessa in Mesopotamia.  A thousand years later his bones were 'rescued' together with the tombstone to be taken to Italy (to remove this treasure from the threatening Turks).  They were apparently stolen while vacationing on the island of Chios in the Aegean and taken to Ortona in Italy.  There most of the bones were kept in the basilica San Thomasso Apostolo but the Turks desecrated them 300 years later.  From the 17th century to the present, the shrine has been opened several times for surveys of the bones and research.  Minus a few arm bones and above mentioned finger bone, there are bits and pieces a few other places.  It would seem that the bones of St. Thomas have had a rather storied career and we know more about that than we actually do the life of the apostles after famously being asked to touch the wounds of the risen Savior.

What does this do for us today?  I am not sure that it helps the case for Jesus nor encourages faith in any doubters.  It makes for a good story but I wonder if there will ever be a time when the bones of the poor man can be laid to rest.  I doubt it.  Much as I love the stories of the lives of the saints, I find the business of relics to be odd and somewhat creepy.  Maybe it is simply my own Lutheran skepticism.  Maybe I am a victim of my own education to have doubts about the bones of the great doubter.  Maybe I fear what someone could do to my own bones that might end up dragging me around for a couple of thousand years.  Or maybe my concern is that all of this, interesting as it might be, detracts from rather than points to Christ.  It also seems to build on the very thing which St. Thomas thought he needed -- a little something to bolster the claim and make faith easier.  But can that be done?  Is is possible to make faith easier?  I doubt it.  Faith is faith.  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.  The only thing which aids and assists the doubter are the things provided for us by Christ.  The Word which gives assurance of the things into which we have been catechized and the Sacraments which convey the very gifts His Word speaks and promises.  At some point, maybe we should let the bones lie, read the Word, and rejoice in the Sacraments.  Maybe then we will all find the assurance St. Thomas was looking for and of which his bones offer no promise.