Friday, April 13, 2018

How does the Christian come to know the Truth?

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – Matthew 8:31,32

One person declares, “This is the Truth!” Yet another person reacts, “No, that is not the Truth; this is the Truth!” Pilate made that enigmatic phrase that was probably more a resignation to real-life circumstance than a philosophical question …”What is the Truth!/?” To which Jesus declined to answer, which I interpret, “Pilate, observe what I am about to do.”

Truth? Truth defined in many ways for many diverse purposes. Confessional truth, judicial truth, scientific truth, philosophical truth, logical truth, even scriptural truth, but I offer that Christ is speaking of experiential truth that slowly reveals the wishes and ways of God.

When Christ speaks of “holding to His teaching” in His guidance to His disciples, I believe He is not merely referring to His Words but referring to the living out of His values and His work. When we actually get around to putting into practice His Teaching than that experience itself teaches us all the more.

In the daring to do what Christ asks us to do … we experientially gain a clearer, deeper, broader, fuller understanding of what God holds to be Truth. The scribes immersed themselves in the dissection and reconstruction of the scriptures … but Christ told them that salvation for them and their nation would be found. No, it would be in the act of humble servanthood, in the ministry of healing hearts and broken relationships, in the touching of lepers, in the welcoming of children, in carrying one’s own cross of struggle, in purity of hearts and purity of vision, in the loving truth would emerge in their experience.

What is Truth? It is in the humility to learn and the humility to serve.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz