"So stand your ground, with truth a belt round your waist" - Ephesians 6:14

by least_of_the_apostles

Hello friends. Today, I want to talk about truth. In today’s world, we are being bombarded by so many voices. There are many voices which claim to challenge the status quo, which declare that they seek to replace ancient and outdated ideologies with more modern and inspired philosophies. There are voices which claim that they alone speak the truth and that no contradictory opinion should be accepted. There are voices which seem to be speaking our language but, upon closer inspection, actually have major differences in dialect. But, as Catholics, how are we to respond to these different voices? How are we to filter through all these opinions to determine the actual truth?

Well, brothers and sisters, I have a very simple answer. Jesus. Jesus is the truth. He said it Himself in John 14:6 where He proclaims, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” So why would we search for the truth anywhere else? Why would we be swayed by any voice that claims to speak truth if it contradicts with Christ’s teaching? Where do we find this teaching? And what do we do once we know the truth?

 

WHERE DO WE FIND THE TRUTH?

We find it in scripture, the Word of God. We find it in the Catholic Church, the same Church founded by Jesus and guided by the Holy Spirit and the same Church about which He declared “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” in Matthew 16:18. Because of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church (the teaching authority entrusted to the apostles and their successors, that is, the Pope and the bishops in union with him), the Catholic faithful can be certain that the truth can be found in our faith, found in both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition and documented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We have evidence of this in the very next verse of Matthew 16, where Jesus says to Peter, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Here, Jesus appoints Peter as the head of His Church and confers on him divine authority (“keys to the kingdom of heaven”) for ruling the Church (“bind” and “loose”). This power of binding and loosing applies not only to Peter, the first Pope, but to all his successors and the rest of the Apostles and their successors (the Bishops) in union with Peter, when speaking on behalf of the Church. While other religions may have some semblance of truth in varying degrees, it is only the Catholic faith in which complete truth may be found.

 

WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

Now that we have determined that truth is only found in the Catholic Church, what are we to do with this knowledge? Should we keep this truth to ourselves? Should we keep our voices to ourselves while the other voices flood the airwaves? No. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says in CCC 851, “Salvation is found in the truth.” It goes on to say that “the Church, to whom this truth has been entrusted, must go out to meet [the desire of those who seek the truth], so as to bring them to the truth.” Therefore, friends, we have a right – no, an obligation – to speak this truth of which we are convicted.

I know this is easier said than done. Christian opinions have become very unpopular in today’s world. Secularism and liberalism pervade our society and have made it a very hostile environment for speaking about Jesus and His teachings. Society teaches the concepts of gender identity and gender fluidity. Society promotes the murder of children in the womb under the guise of freedom of choice. Society encourages instant gratification and following our desires and passions rather than self-control and the glorification of God.

But, friends, we are not called to belong to the world. We are called to belong to Jesus. In John 15, Jesus says, “If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because my choice of you has drawn you out of the world, that is why the world hates you…A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too.” Therefore, we have to be courageous and be the witnesses for Christ that He has called us to be. And we must never compromise on that truth that Jesus teaches us. We are also to be attentive to God and to answer His call to serve Him and the Church in whatever way He desires for us.

 

WHY GET INVOLVED?

Furthermore, we are called to love. In various scriptures, love is identified as that which defines a Christian. Jesus told us in Mark 12:29-31 that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Friends, love means to will the good of another. If we do love God, we would naturally desire to follow His instructions to go out and “make disciples of all nations.” As St. Paul says in his first letter to Timothy, “God wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth.” And God asks us to help Him in this mission. He asks us to be His arms and legs and voice in this world and to take Him to those who do not know Him.

And if we are to love our neighbour, that is, if we are to will their good, it means that we would do everything in our power to lead them to salvation. There is no greater good which we can desire for a person than for them to spend eternity in heaven. How can we claim that we love our friends if we remain silent when they are on a path which would lead to their own destruction? It means that we would not stay silent while they are fed the untrue ideologies of the world.

Suppose I had a friend or family member suffering from an addiction to some harmful drug who did not recognize his addiction as dangerous. Suppose he was continuously using this drug and I could see it destroying him. And suppose I knew the remedy. Could I really say I had love for this person if I did not try to save him from this addiction and its harmful effects? Would I be acting out of love if I refrained from commenting out of fear of what he would think of me? Would I really be willing his good if I continued to watch him destroy himself because I was afraid of offending him? No! If I had genuine love for him, I would be willing to take the risk and share with him the remedy which I know could cure all.  

 

BE BOLD…

This may seem like a strange example, but I think this is the way we need to approach speaking the truth about the Word of God. We need to be bold and unafraid in telling the world about Jesus and the truth about various issues as taught by our faith. Sometimes, it may be difficult. It may seem like no one wants to hear or that we do not know the right words to say. But, we have to remember that we cannot change hearts. We cannot convict people with only our words. It is only God who can change hearts and only the Holy Spirit who can give us wisdom with which to handle situations and the right words to say. But God wants to use us as His instruments through which He can bring His grace and truth to others. In Matthew 10:19-20, Jesus warns The Twelve that they would face persecution but tells them, “But when you are handed over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes, because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you.”

So what are we to do? We are to be bold in our speech. We are not to be afraid of witnessing in our secular spaces such as our schools and workplaces. Social media has such a wide reach and is often used for spreading so much negativity and error. Instead, we can use our social media platforms to share Catholic content, to spread the good news and to combat the flood of misinformation and hate. Even in our parishes, we can speak up where we see injustice and reach out to our brothers and sisters in love where we see they may need correction and support.

 

…BUT DO NOT CONDEMN

But we do have to be careful, brothers and sisters, not to become judgmental and hypocritical. If we are just pointing out the fault of another for the purpose of criticising and tearing down, we become no better than the Pharisees. Let us remember Jesus’ warning about noticing the splinter in our brother’s eye and not the log in our own (Matthew 7). We must always first be aware that we are all in need of God’s mercy and that we are nothing on our own, that any good quality that we may have is simply a result of God’s grace. We must never strive to judge and condemn others, but strive to be a conduit of divine grace through which God can minister to others. We must always remember that one of the greatest forms of witness we can give to others is to reflect Jesus in our own lives. Our words are nothing if they contradict our actions.

To do this, we have to always remember our motivation for speaking out. Our motivation is our love for God and our desire to be His witnesses and to play our part in the building of His kingdom. We are also motivated by our love for our fellow man and our desire for their salvation. If we continue to pursue our relationship with God, He will guide us by His Holy Spirit and give us the wisdom and boldness we need to be good witnesses.

 

Be blessed, friends! Be bold! Be outspoken!

“God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power and love and self-control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to our Lord…” – 2 Timothy 1:7-8