Ours is an increasingly, "doubt-everyone, trust-no-one," world. Everybody is under suspicion. The government, the courts, churches, there are few if any institutions that are beyond reproach and widely considered worthy of broad confidence.

We don't trust each other.

Why? Maybe because we don't know each other. Research says the average American has fewer good friends than they did a generation ago. Or maybe because we don't forgive each other, as we hold on to grudges, and stockpile dark memories, choosing to permanently label people for the worst things they do, resisting the once common habit of giving people the benefit of the doubt . Or maybe it's because we are increasingly isolated from one another, we get siloed into gated communities, both geographically and digitally, surrounding ourselves only with people who look, think, and live like we do. And perhaps we  have drunk too freely from the poisonous brew of materialism and self-centeredness that can breed suspicion.

Of course there's a place for doubt in our world. Saint Thomas shows us that in Sunday's gospel. However when faced with irrefutable evidence, Thomas put doubt to rest. He didn't look for loopholes, excuses, or alternative facts. He humbly accepted his shortsightedness, and with common sense born of Occam's razor, faced the hard truth that, yes, Christ is risen.

Among the litany of negative cultural trends, resisting our "doubt-everyone, trust-no-one" tendency calls us to cultivate respect for others, to be quick to forgive, to have courage to reach out of ourselves and to make and maintain vital friendships, especially with people who aren't like us and who may not be easy to get along with. And finally, to draw nearer to Christ, who is the source of all truth.

During this Easter season we do well to contemplate the power of God, which is the power to put doubt into perspective, and to accept truth no matter how hard that may be.