Sunday 12th April.
If you examine a piece of fine silver or gold you will find on it somewhere some marks placed there by the jeweler or manufacturer. Hallmarks are engraved into every item for two reasons, the first to show that the item is actually what it appears to be – that it is in fact an item made of pure silver or Gold.  The second thing a Hallmark does is tell you where the product comes from.  A Hallmark is a guarantee of quality and purity.
The gospel reading was about the Apostle Thomas DOUBTING THOMAS as he has come to be known. Thomas had not been with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared to them after the resurrection, and when they told him about it his first reaction was a normal one – he did not believe it. Thomas was looking for a hallmark – and ultimately he found it in the loving personal relationship Jesus offered him, rather than in the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side, which were also there.
Today, people still look for hallmarks before they will believe.  But rather than the marks of Christ’s love being shown in his physical body, they are shown in us, in the people of his church, which is everywhere called the Body of Christ. That we the church bear the Hallmark of Christ Jesus.
Quite simply that Hallmark is a life that resembles his, a life of light, and of truth, and of faith.  But the most notable part of the hallmark of Christ that we bear when we are truly in him and he in us – is our love for each other.  When we have Christ in us, his Hallmark means we are made by him and his purity lives in us.
Don’t let anything hold you back from the Hallmark of Christ.