These things did Thomas count as real

These things did Thomas count as real. Thomas Troeger* (1945-2022). From Troeger’s New Hymns for the Lectionary: to Glorify the Maker’s Name (New York and Oxford, 1986), reprinted in Borrowed Light (1994). It is based on the story of doubting Thomas (John 20: 19-31), which is given a new twist by imagining Thomas as feeling the wounds of Christ like a blind man. In Troeger’s words, ‘the idea of doubting Thomas reading Christ’s palm as Braille … came to me upon re-reading “I Walk the Farm I Never Walked”, a poem I had written several years earlier for my wife and her mother’ (Borrowed Light, pp. 188-9). The connection between the dedication of the poem and Long Metre hymn is made explicit in...