The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but . . .

What is truth? Deutsch: Was ist Wahrheit? Français : "Qu'est-ce que la vérité ?" Le Christ et Pilate. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

R

ecent developments in this year’s presidential campaign with, at best, deceptive ads accusing Mitt Romney of causing death and destruction as a  direct result of his greedy, capitalist, bourgeois activities as the head of Bain Capital, make it clear that truth is no longer regarded as something to be desired.  Most people seem to simply shrug, accepting it as part of the new world we're living in.  This apathy is a mistake which inevitably leads to disastrous consequences, not just for society but also for each of us individually.

 
First, as Peggy Noonan points out in Friday's Wall Street Journal, the continual lies are making us a nation of cynics -- we don't believe anything anyone says.  We're being lied to with increasing wantonness by our leaders, to the point that we can't accept anything they say.  This is amazing to someone who grew up in the 1950's, when national leaders were expected to be truthful, most of the time anyway.  Yes, an occasional porky was expected, but generally our leaders spoke the truth, they could be relied upon and respected as decent men.  Not so now.  It's a distressing situation because not only does it make impossible full, responsible participation in the political process, it’s degrading to all of us as human beings.  We become desensitized, even brutalized, as human persons because all around are brutalized. 

 There's a spiritual cost being exacted that we’re possibly no longer able to even recognize.  Thomas Merton wrote in No Man Is An Island:

 

We make ourselves real by telling the truth. Man can hardly forget that he needs to know the truth, for the instinct to know is too strong in us to be destroyed. But he can forget how badly he also needs to tell the truth. We cannot know truth unless we ourselves are conformed to it. We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us. But we make ourselves true inside by manifesting the truth as we see it.

Not knowing the truth, we lose touch with reality and, therefore our ability to conform our lives to it; we live a fantasy.  We need the truth; it’s not just something nice to have for those who can afford it.  Without it, we lose touch with our deepest selves, becoming lost to God in the process. 

I can't think of anything scarier, not even working for a company taken over by Bain Capital.

Friday Florilegia, Friday, August 10, 2012

This is the first reading for the 20 Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 119

Reading 1 Prv 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidens; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
"Let whoever is simple turn in here;
To the one who lacks understanding, she says,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;
advance in the way of understanding."

I would like, contrary to custom, to add a word to these regular postings that has to do with why I chose to do this.  Our culture, not just our country, is a critical juncture in history, civilization is declining at an alarming rate, I sometimes think that within 50 years it may disappear altogether -- we may end up living in caves, or some comparable condition.  Things are becoming more brutalized every day. 

The only answer I can see to this is prayer.  I've tried some political action and, other than voting, I don't think it's going to change things at all; I have doubts about voting, but it's vital that if you are legally eligible to vote, you do so in November.  But prayer is the only thing I see that has any real chance of reversing the course we are on.  So, I post these to encourage you to pray; with lectio if you choose, but in any way that you are able if lectio is not for you. 

Just Can't Do It

It has now become clear that I can't do two blogs at one time, just can't do it.  An Oblate Journal will fade away into the sunset, at least until retirement when I might be able to pick it up again.  Posts that I might have done for that blog will appear here.

Actually, the general idea of A Colorado Catholic's Musings is one I can work with fairly well since it offers some flexibility in what I can write about, I like that.

† † †

On a slightly different topic I'm going to offer a shameless plea for the occasional comment.  If there's something here you find that you enjoy, I certainly don't mind hearing about it.  If there's something you really don't like, it would be worth hearing about that too.  If what you find here is just plain boring, I wouldn't even mind hearing about that. 

When you have enough ego to write on your own blog on the Internet, it’s nice, occasionally, to get a little feedback; there's been very little of that here since I started.  I'd enjoy having some back and forth with anyone who might stumble across this place, to make the whole thing a bit more conversational in nature.  – and so I know there really is someone out there.

‘Course, if it’s just too boring to mess with, I can understand.

Peace to all.

Silence, Part I of Who Knows How Many

I could write endless posts about silence and never get to the heart of why it seems so vital for me as part of being human. I wonder, though, if the effort would, itself, be a violation of silence, my own and anyone who happened to read my scribbling’s.

I think it's a Camaldolese ideal that one shouldn't break the silence unless you can offer something better than the silence. That's hard to do, if you think about it. How many of us have anything to say that is that important or would be that gratifying to those around us (or to blog readers, for that matter)? Not many.

I say this because I think I should use that guidance for posting here, I really hope over the next year I can do that. I think there is way too much on the Internet that is just noise, much of it uncharitable noise, and that it would be better had it never seen the light of day. To try my best to avoid that probably means doing fewer posts here, trying to write and post only what is truly sincere and heartfelt, and trying to, in all cases write charitably. I'm not always very good at that latter point.

A Word on Wednesday, Wednesday, August 8, 2012, St Augustine

Late have I love you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I love you!

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, August 5, 2012 St Irenaeus

He has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be his own blood) from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as his own body, from which he gives increase unto our bodies. When, therefore, the mixed cup [wine and water] and the baked bread receive the Word of God and become the Eucharist, the body of Christ, and from these the substance of our flesh is increased and supported) how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life — flesh which is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord and is in fact a member of him? (Against Heresies 5:2 [A.D. 189]).

Friday Florilegia, Friday, August 3, 2012

From next Sunday's Gospel, the 19th week in Ordinary Time

Gospel Jn 6:41-51

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,
"I am the bread that came down from heaven,"
and they said,
"Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?
Do we not know his father and mother?
Then how can he say,
'I have come down from heaven?'"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Stop murmuring among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."