Where is Truth From?

 Today’s readings touch upon one of the most important problematics in today’s world: our relationship with the truth. What is truth? What is our truth, as human beings? Where is that truth and where does it come from?

1. The prophet Isaiah says that many nations shall come to Jerusalem and say to each other: “‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2.1-5). This is a prophecy of the Messianic times: the Apostles were instructed by Jesus to preach the Good News to all nations beginning from Jerusalem (cf. Luke 24:46; Acts 1:4-7). Jerusalem is an image of the Kingdom of Heaven, an organized community with the God-man Jesus as its leader and centre; a community that will be perfect in Heaven but begins on earth through the Church. In this Jerusalem, “the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David” (Psalm 122). So, our truth comes from God Himself: “He will teach us His ways that we may walk in His paths”; but God’s word, containing this truth, comes not from just anywhere but from Jerusalem. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make any sense that the many nations must come to Jerusalem to learn about this word.

2. Certainly, there is a truth about human being that is available everywhere to everyone who is open to the truth. It is the natural truth, the truth of reason and science, the one that anyone with intelligence can understand. For example, it is not necessary to be a Christian in order to know that stealing is bad. No matter where people live, nobody likes to be robbed of his property.

There is, however, another truth, that is not available to everyone because, in a way, it does not make any sense: God, the Creator, wants us, poor sinners, to be forgiven and to live in Heaven with Him as His own children. This is the Gospel, the Good News: not simply that God is good but that He is good to us. God wants us to be happy, not simply as humans could be happy on earth, but as He himself is happy in Heaven. Now, in order for that to happen, God has a plan for us, He indicated a way: we need to know the way. This truth, the truth about God’s love, Heaven and the way towards Heaven, is the one that comes from Jerusalem, from Jesus through the Apostles and to the whole world. It is the truth about what we actually mean for God, who we are for Him.

3. The problem is that many people nowadays are not open to the truth. Better said, they think that truth comes from themselves. They call truth their own thoughts about themselves. They think they can make up who they are, they think they can determine what is good and what is evil on their own.

Another time we can talk about why this is not so. Today, instead, I wanted to sound the alarm to the fact that people today do not think that there is one truth and, therefore, do not think that anything like truth could possibly come from the Church. The point is crucial, because you Christian may fight tirelessly for the truth, arguing with reason and with the Bible, without realizing that your listeners do not see why they should submit to your truth.

Sometimes they think that, at the most, this is your truth, so they are free to take it or leave it as they wish. Other times, even if they accept that there is one truth only, they do not see why they should accept it from the Church, which, in their view, is a human institution with so many deficient elements.

4. This means that, as a Church, we have a particular task before us if we want to be faithful to our mission of spreading the Gospel. First, regarding truth itself, second, regarding the Church. First, we need to teach people that there is a truth, and that we do not make it up by ourselves. How…? We will talk about this another day but let me say a few things. Truth is not a cake that each one bakes at home, but like a friend that you encounter along the way. It is not good for man or woman to be alone. Truth is reassurance, truth is like a father or a mother, like a ground underneath or like a roof on top of your head. Truth is not a limit; it is your support and your protection. Truth is a friend, something that breaks boredom and loneliness and makes you feel that there is something new to discover. Truth is like an unexpected gift: you sometimes may not know where this gift is from, but the truth makes you feel that you are loved: “I got it!” Truth is something that knocks at the door of your mind and when you open feels just right. Truth is like food for our existential hunger. We cannot live without truth, and we cannot make up our own truth. When we do, we become the little gods of our own universe, a universe as little as we are, a universe without wonder or surprises, a universe that cannot go beyond our own judgments and expectations, our own cravings and desires. When we make up our own truth, we become the gods of our own creation… and what can we create on our own? We become gods who cannot save themselves, gods without hope, many times sad, angry, resentful, lonely. Life is easier when you open the door to the truth.

Second, and finally, we need to renew in us Christians and in the people around us a sense of trust in the Church. We cannot ignore that people have reasons to not trust the Church. Sometimes those reasons are false, sometimes they are inflated truths, and sometimes they are simply true. We need to recover people’s trust. We cannot talk to people as if we were Moses on the mountain, when we have little or no credibility before them. How do we do that is a question for another day, but that we need to do it is clear. It is our service to the world: we need to prepare a way in people’s hearts for the coming of God’s truth to them.