“If you were asked to choose from amongst all the people close to Jesus whom we’ve met along the way in our scripture readings, which one would you say you would most like to meet and get to know? Peter, our namesake? Mary, Jesus’s mother? Matthew, the tax collector? Joanna, wife of one of Herod’s stewards?Until last fall, I’d have a difficult time choosing between Bartimaeus, the blind man whose sight was restored, and the woman we know as Mary Magdelene. How many of us would say Thomas?”