Be Not Afraid

Featured Image: “Rosa Frau Karl Drushki Wien 2014,” © Anna reg (own work), June 2014. CC BY-SA 3.0. (license)

As I scroll through my newsfeed and my blogfeed this morning, a pattern is emerging. Confusion. Fear. Bewilderment. Anger. Frustration. Helplessness. There really is no point in enumerating the litany of reasons for these emotions. They are self-evident. Terrorism, domestic and foreign. The sickening current state of our nation’s politics. Refugee crises, economic crises, global health crises…
It’s easy to despair. I am particularly vulnerable to feelings of desperation given my very black-and-white way of seeing the world and my predisposition to depressive thinking. However, then I force myself to remember, that the victory over sin and death is already won. Don’t misunderstand me; we citizens of this planet have a real and pressing duty to work now to bring about peace in our day, but I know with my whole heart that we have a victor in Christ, and it is in Him that I am putting my faith.

I leave you with these three quotes, which I am contemplating today.

“There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already borne for us, and does not bear with us.”

“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are an Easter people, and Hallelujah is our song.” 

“The future starts today, not tomorrow.”

~ Pope St. John Paul II