DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Jesus answered Pilate’s question. “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”

Pilate then asked, “What is truth?”  – John 18:37b-38a

Two men met face to face, even heart to heart, both knowing in their own mind the critical moment they shared.  One of those men was a politician, the other, a rabbi.  For the most part, both men the truth of the situation, but the rabbi knew the truth of this cosmic drama and the ways of the human heart, while the politician knew the truth of his precarious political circumstance and the ways of kings and crowds.

We witness this encounter between prophets and kings over and over in the scriptural history.  The prophet is accused and beaten by the governmental powers, but in time the kings meet their demise and the crowds lose their growl.

Being a prophet is a precarious vocation for usually the prophet in his or her warning is met with anger and rejection, judged as disloyal to the king and a disturber of the crowds.  Being a prophet, a true prophet, requires a spirit of self-sacrifice in order that the Truth will be somewhere heard.  And the Truth of God so often goes counter to the truth as understood by the Pilates of this world.

Truth will always demand a certain change on the part of the people, and so many people fear change.  Truth will always demand a measure of humility that troubles the pride of people and political powers.  Truth has always been dismissed as false so that the Truth can be then ignored.  Truth is spectre that haunts the minds of kings.

In Christ … I can no stand in no other place … except in the center of the Truth of God.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz