The Words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen
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.
(excerpt from Our Grounds for Hope)
Reflection on the Archbishop’s Words by Father Andrew Apostoli
When Archbishop Sheen died on December 9, 1979, the Sunday after Easter had not yet been proclaimed “Divine Mercy Sunday” by Pope John Paul II. Yet, the Archbishop’s meditation certainly lends itself to a realization of how faith is an aspect of God’s mercy towards us. The gospel of the Sunday after Easter is always the famous incident of “doubting Thomas,” the Apostle who unfortunately missed the meeting at Easter night during which his fellow Apostles saw the risen Lord for the first time. Thomas, relying only on the word of the others, refuses to believe that Jesus is actually risen until he can put his finger into the place of the nails in the hands of Jesus and his hand into spear mark on Jesus’ side. (Interestingly, Thomas had never seen these wounds before. Yet, so overwhelming was the reality of these wounds that Thomas would not base his faith on any other evidence.)
Doubts about the resurrection are nothing new. St. Paul, even in his day, makes reference to the people who were saying way back then that there was no resurrection of the dead (cf. 1 Cor. 15:12). Today we have even more doubters. Like Thomas, they want to see before they will believe. Yet, it is only by believing that we can come to “see” with our understanding those things which Jesus has taught us.
The archbishop touches in the final part of his meditation on the Holy Spirit. He quotes St. Paul’s description that we have received “the Spirit of Adoption” by which we cry out: “Abba, Father.” He tells us also, “Fear not.” As we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, we are reminded that we must put our complete trust in the Mercy of our Savior Who gave His very life for us on the cross. He endured the suffering and humiliation of crucifixion because He loved us so much. It is only in the light of this surpassing love that we can recognize that we are loved. The archbishop’s little story by Dostoevsky, involving the painting entitled, The Taking Down of Christ from the Cross, provides a profound reflection. He says that those who would be “ruined by that picture,” are simply those who face life with no belief that there is anything beyond the grave, namely, the materialist, the atheist and the Communist. For them, life ends abruptly at a “dead end.” For the Christian, as we say in one of the Prefaces for the Mass of Christian Burial, “Life is not ended but merely changed.” Our faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the hope for our own resurrection is truly one of the greatest gifts of the Divine Mercy to us.
(Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR is the Vice-Postulator of the Cause for Canonization of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Please visit our website!)
