Truth only through God

IF we want to know the real, ultimate truth of things, we

need to go to God. The simple reason is that he is the creator of

everything and holds the truth of everything. In fact, he is the

creator of truth and he is truth himself.

   

            We have to overcome the prevailing idea that truth is a

matter of coming out with pieces of evidence, data, facts, statistics,

etc. To be sure, those things help in leading us to the truth. But

they too can also mislead us, and they can do that in a very

convincing way.

  

            Yes, truth can and should only be pursued in the context

of our vital relationship with God. If we just depend on our own

powers, forget it. We would just be playing around, chasing after the

wind, chasing after our own tail.

  

            We would just put ourselves at the mercy of our own

interest, whatever it may be, and fail to serve the common good and to

give glory to God which what truth is supposed to accomplish. With

God, truth always comes with charity. Truth based on facts and data

but without charity is no truth at all.

  

            St. Augustine said something relevant to this point.

“Noverim te, noverim me,” he said. “Lord, let me know you and know

myself.” He was referring to the quest for self-knowledge which is

also a very complicated process because man is a great mystery even to

oneself. But he realized it was only by knowing God that he would have

a better knowledge of his own self.

   

            Obviously, since knowing the truth requires a vital and

intimate relationship with God, it would also require great effort

from us. In fact, it would require a lot of sacrifice and the

compliance to what Christ himself said once—that if we want to follow

him, we need to deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24)

  

            Thus, we have to understand that we cannot get close to

the truth unless we are willing to make sacrifices. We have to learn

to suffer for the truth. That’s simply because our present condition

of our human limitations, weaknesses and sin, with temptations always

hounding us, would demand from us not only effort but also sacrifice,

since we need to be purified.

  

            During this Lenten season, let us therefore intensify our

spirit of sacrifice and penance. Let us recover the appreciation of

corporal mortifications, like fasting and abstinence, and go through

some forms of self-denial like avoiding gossiping and back-biting,

hate speech especially during this election campaign period, etc.

  

            We have to understand that fasting is not simply about

food and drinks, but also about the use of the gadgets and the new

technologies, about our tendency to splurge in our daydreams,

dangerous imagination, sinful memories and desires.

            Let’s see to it that all these should have the effect of

sharpening our yearning for God, our love, compassion, patience for

the others. These practices should not just be purely negative

practices of self-privation. They should be forms of self-emptying

that would fill us more and more with charity.

  

            Let’s see to it that all these bring us closer to the

truth as revealed to us in full by Christ. In other words, that these

things make us more and more like Christ who is the way, the truth and

the life for us. (cfr. Jn 14,6) We have to understand that we can only

be in the truth to extent that we identify ourselves with Christ.

  

            As we can see, the quest for truth is primarily a

religious concern before it is a human task. It involves our relation

with God. This truth about truth should be spread widely to overcome

the trend to associate it simply with our own human ways.