July 3

Thomas the Apostle and Mozi

Author

David Barnhart
July 03, 2025

Eggplant, 2025. Own photo.

Today is the Feast Day of Thomas the Apostle, who probably died around the year 72. Though the most famous story of Thomas is probably the “doubting Thomas” story from John 20:24-29, I like to pair it with Thomas’s steadfast commitment to Jesus, saying that he would gladly die with Jesus in John 11:16. According to tradition, Thomas headed East after the resurrection and founded several church in India. 

I’d also like to choose today to remember the Chinese philosopher Mozi, who, like Jesus, was a carpenter and preached an impartial, universal love. At one point, his teaching rivaled that of Confucius. He was a peace-maker during a time of war, 

Reflection: 

Mozi wrote: 

“When nobody in the world loves any other, naturally the strong will overpower the weak, the many will oppress the few, the wealthy will mock the poor, the honoured will disdain the humble, the cunning will deceive the simple. Therefore all the calamities, strifes, complaints, and hatred in the world have arisen out of want of mutual love.”

and

“Criticism without suggestion is like trying to stop flood with flood and put out fire with fire. It will surely be without worth.”

and

“Now, as to universal love and mutual aid, they are beneficial and easy beyond a doubt. It seems to me that the only trouble is that there is no superior who encourages it. If there is a superior who encourages it, promoting it with rewards and commendations, threatening its reverse with punishments, I feel people will tend toward universal love and mutual aid like fire tending upward and water downwards — it will be unpreventable in the world.”

Prayer: God, may universal love become truly unpreventable in the world. Amen.