Despair and Doubts

Hello Everyone:
I had hoped to post more for Easter week but the days slipped away from me. I felt this writing of Bishop Fulton Sheen was pertinent for today as we are so filled with doubts and not enough trust in God's Goodness and Mercy. God is God and yet we find ourselves distressed and upset over so many things. We need to remember that He is truly in control and that there is a reason for everything. I will post another tomorrow that talks more about the light that comes after the darkness.

Here is the article written many years ago by Archbishop Fulton Sheen. It is of course as relevant today as it was then. God is the same yesterday, today and always.

The Words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen (taken from Lenten & Easter Inspirations - a collection of articles, 1967):
Easter Afternoon, when Our Blessed Lord becomes the fellow traveler of His Disciples on the way to Emmaus, He finds them also downcast with despair because they had hopes that it was He who would have redeemed Israel, but now it is three days since He is dead.
Seven days later Thomas the Apostle, still refusing to believe the good news, says that he will not believe until he can put his fingers into His hands and his hand into His Side. In that moment Our Lord appears: “Put in thy finger hither and see My Hands and bring hither thy hand and put it into My Side and be not faithless, but believe.” Apparently the one thing that the Apostles and lovers of Our Blessed Lord were not expecting was His Resurrection from the dead and when He appeared in their midst, He said, to rebuke their fears, “Why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”
Well indeed may Our Lord say the same to us: “Why are you troubled in heart, despairing and cast down? Are you seeking security, rather than the happiness of the Resurrection?” Too often, we are like those who, taking an ocean journey, are more concerned with the life belts than with the cabin; or, traveling by air, are more interested with the parachute than the beauty of God’s sky; or traveling the highway, are less happy about the ride than looking for first-aid stations. Rather with St. Paul should we say: “If Christ is not risen, then we are all men most miserable.” Shall we believe that God reserves all the mourning for His sons and all the joys for His enemies? Are we condemned to hang our harps upon the willows and sing nothing but doleful dirges, while the children of Satan are to laugh with gladness of heart?
No, rather we have received not the spirit of bondage to fear but the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry out: “Father!” Fear not! Realize that He Who went into that grave is Truth Itself and Truth crushed to earth will rise again. Dostoevsky tells us the story of two men looking at a painting by Holbein, the Taking of Christ from the Cross. One said: “I like looking at that picture.” The other said, “Some people’s faith has been ruined by that picture.” And right he was! That picture would ruin the faith of a materialist, an atheist, a Communist, and all who believe that there is nothing after this life. If there is no Resurrection, but Christ is dead, one cannot believe either in the Goodness of God or the Goodness of man. But if He Who took the worst the world had to offer and conquered it, then evil shall never be victorious again.