{"id":37368,"date":"2024-08-11T00:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-08-11T04:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=37368"},"modified":"2024-08-13T12:29:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T16:29:12","slug":"when-we-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/when-we-doubt\/","title":{"rendered":"When We Doubt","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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SHE<\/strong> looked at me like I was crazy. As I spoke at a conference about the Church’s mission to evangelize and the power of the Gospel, a woman seated near the back had a contorted look on her face. She would occasionally whisper mockingly to her sister sitting beside her and then return to me with a stupefied gaze. It was hard not to notice. But then, it was hard not to notice her sister’s expression, which was markedly different; her eyes spoke of a soul searching, processing, and yet, not certain.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, in an afternoon Question and Answer<\/em> period, the searching sister raised her hand.\u00a0“What do we do if we have doubts about God, about whether He exists and whether these things are real?” The following are some of things I shared with her…<\/p>\n

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THE ORIGINAL WOUND<\/p>\n

It’s normal to doubt, of course (insofar as this is the common lot of fallen human nature). Even the Apostles who witnessed, walked, and worked with Jesus doubted His Word; when the women testified that the tomb was empty, they doubted; when Thomas was told that Jesus appeared to the other Apostles, he doubted (see today’s Gospel<\/a>). Not until he put his fingers into the wounds of Christ did Thomas also believe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, I asked her, “Why doesn’t Jesus just appear again on earth so that everyone can see Him? Then we can all believe, right? The answer is because He’s \"\"already done that<\/em>. He walked among us, healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf, calmed their storms, multiplied their food, and raised the dead\u2014and then we crucified Him. And if Jesus were to walk among us today, we would crucify Him all over again. Why? Because of the wound of original sin<\/em> in the human heart. The first sin was not eating a fruit from a tree; no, before that, it was the sin of\u00a0distrust.\u00a0<\/em>That after all God had done, Adam and Eve distrusted His Word and believed the lie that perhaps, they too, could be gods.”<\/p>\n

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Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.<\/strong> \u2014Catechism of the Catholic Church, <\/em>n. 397<\/span>
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“So,” I continued, “that’s why we are saved ‘through faith’ (Eph 2:8). Only faith<\/em>\u00a0can restore us again to \"\"God, and this, too, is a gift of His grace and love. If you want to know just how deep the wound of original sin is in the human heart, look at the Cross<\/em>. There you’ll see that God Himself had to suffer and die in order to repair this existential wound and reconcile us to Himself. In other words, this state of mistrust in our hearts, this wound, is a rather big deal.”<\/p>\n

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BLESSED, WHO DO NOT SEE<\/p>\n

Yes, from time to time, God does reveal himself to others, as He did to St.\u00a0Thomas, so that they might believe. And these “signs and wonders” also become signs for us. While in prison, John the Baptist sent a message to Jesus asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?\u201d Jesus said in reply:<\/p>\n

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Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me. (Matt 11:3-6)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Those are such insightful words. For how many people today do indeed take offence at the notion of the miraculous? Even Catholics, intoxicated as it were by a spirit of rationalism<\/a>, struggle to accept the multitude of “signs and wonders” that belong to our Catholic heritage. These are given to remind us that God exists. “For example,” I said to her, “the many Eucharistic miracles around \"\"the world, which cannot be explained. They are clear evidence that Jesus meant what He said: ‘I am the bread of life… my flesh is true food and blood is true drink.\u00a0Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.’<\/em> [1]<\/sup><\/a>John 6:48, 55-56<\/span><\/span>