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To conquer Thomas's obduracy our Lord opened his wounds. A burning ray shone so strongly upon Thomas's heart's humility, life's hardened armor cracked, and he was transformed, and with faith he saw the old and new laws' meaning: "He has left me what was His; yes, He opened the way for me to go into my Father's house." Whence Christ said to Thomas after the hard death: "though you saw and believed, they who can't see and yet believe are blessed, finer." What paradise is and the place were laid opened to him--for us the road's shorter, smoother: we need but believe to find Him. |
An image of the Italian text from Visconti's 1840 edition |
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Notes: From V CI:261. See also B S1:118:144; MS V2; Valgrisi 119. A second sonnet to an apostle, this time to "Doubting Thomas". References: John 14:5-7; John 20:24-29; Jacobus de Voragine Golden Legend, the apocryphal Acts of St Thomas. Cf. the early Christian Anglo-Saxon 'Andreas', translated by Charles Kennedy as 'St. Andrew's Mission to Mermedonia' in his Early English Christian Poetry. Key |
