What Is Truth?
6th Sunday of Easter Year (A)
2008-04-27
John 14:15-21What is truth?
These words have been on the lips of mankind for as long as there has been intelligible speech. It seems that just about everything we do is motivated by this one goal…to discover, uncover, unearth – to finally reveal the truth. We so desperately want to know the truth. We want our internal compass, our moral compass, to point firmly in the direction of the truth…to show us the “way to go.” Only then will we have a sense of meaning, a sense of purpose in our lives. Only then will everything make sense.
Only a few short weeks ago on Good Friday, we heard Pontius Pilate ask Jesus, “What is truth?” And still, 2000 years later, everywhere we look the world around us continues to seek the answer to the question at the root of every quest, of every journey, of every expedition…what is the source, where did it all come from, why are we here…WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
Our world searches for the truth in many places. Some look through microscopes in hopes of discovering the truth in the tiny building blocks used to make us who we are. Some look to the skies through telescopes in hopes of finding the truth in the many worlds beyond our own. Some dig deep in the earth to seek the truth in who we were. And, some will climb mountains and meditate among candles and incense in hopes of revealing the truth of who we can become. While still others, have seemingly abandoned the search altogether, content to live a life centered on the here and now, on personal pleasures and selfish inclinations. These, all of these, are the ways of the world – a world whose moral compass is spinning, a world who has lost its way.
Every year, millions of innocent children are destroyed through the horror of abortion, legalized in America for nearly 30 years.
Our moral compass is spinning.
Our schools find it necessary to teach children…young children…a skewed vision of human sexuality, but find it offensive to even consider the possibility of an intelligent designer of the universe.
Our moral compass is spinning.
God and His 10 commandments have been stripped from courthouse walls and Nativity scenes have been removed from the lawns of city halls.
Our moral compass is spinning.
A hedonistic, self-serving culture of sexual permissiveness, contraception, homosexuality, greed, poverty and war has become “normal, acceptable,” and has woven its way into the fabric of our lives.
Our moral compass is spinning…spinning out of control.
But, what can we do? What is the answer? WHAT IS TRUTH?
The answer is quite simple. And it’s the same answer that Pilate got when he asked, “What is truth?” nearly 2000 years ago. In last week’s Gospel reading, Jesus said it straight out…”I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.”
The Truth…is Jesus. And you find the Truth…in His Church! And how do we know that the Church is true? Because Jesus said so in today’s Gospel. Saint John tells us that Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to be with the Church always.
And there is only one Truth, not many, like the world would have you to believe. That means, that even though your “compass may be spinning” as you walk amongst the world, the instant you step into the doors of this church, the Catholic Church, your moral compass points unwaveringly to the Truth…the Truth of Jesus.
Living an authentic Catholic life is living in the Truth of Jesus, just as God had always intended for us…just as Jesus promised in today’s Gospel. What a blessing that in today’s mixed up world, we have a place where we can go to get answers, answers to our everyday problems and concerns.
We get comfort for our sorrows and afflictions.
We get graces to sustain us on the journey.
We get joy in knowing that the Saints and Martyrs walk beside us.
We get consolation as we reconcile ourselves with God, His people and His Church.
But, remember, with that blessing, joy and consolation, also comes grave responsibility. If the Church is the pillar and foundation of Truth, as Saint Paul calls it, we have an obligation to listen to her. For, from her very mouth comes Truth – in the form of Papal letters, encyclicals and exhortations, Magisterial writings and Sacred Tradition. A Truth not of the world, but of God.
In fact, Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel that this Truth is one that “the world cannot accept, because it neither sees or knows” the Holy Spirit. That means that to be “true,” to be authentically Catholic, we must hold to all that the Church teaches, even if it goes against what the world tells us. This is the Church that Jesus founded. This is the Truth.
Yes…Jesus is here - in every brick, in every scrap of wood, in every pane of stained glass. And Jesus is here, in the revealed Word of God given first to the Israelites and then passed on to those who followed the Way. Jesus is here in the ministers of the Church, whose ordination came at the hands of those who in unbroken succession follow in the footsteps of the original Twelve Apostles. Jesus is here in the gathered community, called together in His name to worship.
But most of all, Jesus is here, in the Tabernacle. Truly here. Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. The source and summit of our faith. The Eucharist, which we receive every time we approach with hands reverently outstretched, or mouths open wide to receive Him, so that we might become a living, walking tabernacle of the Truth.
What is Truth?
Jesus is Truth.
Where is the Truth?
Here is Truth!