Humanity, so often dubious and untruthful, often demands straight answers. After all, are we really entitled to the Truth?
Newsroom (20/08/2023 18:32, Gaudium Press) Every child asks questions. In quantity. All the time, about everything. As children ourselves, we used to ask our parents a lot of questions. They, in turn, asked our grandparents the same. Today it’s our children’s turn. And even in the attentive gaze of babies we can already glimpse a questioning mind, heralding the arrival of a new generation of curious people.
Behind these questions we can discern the human instinct to seek the truth. It’s what man does most; one could almost say it’s his main occupation. From the student who questions books and teachers to the scientist who delves into the tiniest bits of matter, man is always looking to uncover the secrets of the universe. In fact, the work of science is nothing more than a constant questioning of the truth hidden in things.
And paradoxically, man, who is so often dubious and untruthful, thinks he has the right to demand straight and truthful answers from others. That’s why, when he learns of a piece of news, a discovery or a statement, he immediately asks himself: “Is it true?”
Well, they wouldn’t be so anxious to find the truth if they didn’t sense the existence of an absolute Truth. From the moment they begin to think, human beings ask questions about it, but even though they sense its existence, they can’t define it. And just as Pilate asked the Divine Master: “What is truth?” (Jn 18:38), today many ask themselves: “Does truth really exist?” The philosophical schools each answer in their own way: there are those who claim to be the owners of the truth, others who deny the possibility of knowing it, and others who, at the opposite extreme, claim that it doesn’t exist.
If the world today seems to be wandering aimlessly, isn’t it precisely because it has lost the compass that guides it towards the truth? Or even the very notion of the essence of that Truth? More and more people are living detached from reality. Because truth is not a thing, nor an idea, nor a school of thought… It is a Person!
It is someone who, becoming incarnate, wanted to reveal himself to us and bring us the Truth, which is himself, according to his statement: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6). Yes, Jesus Christ is the Truth, who dwelt with the Apostles, died on the Cross, but remains in all those who keep his words, that is, practice his Commandments (cf. Jn 14:15; 14:23). Life, Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and true God. This is the Truth. Truth that came to his own, but was rejected by them (cf. Jn 1:11). A rejection that the world also reserves for all those who are truly and sincerely insatiable lovers of the Truth… because it is infinite!
Text taken from the magazine Heralds of the Gospel, issue 151, July 2014.
