Justice, Peace, & Integrity of Creation - TRUTH

“What is Truth?”—Pontius Pilate (John 18: 38)

“Truth is not Truth.”—Rudy Giuliani (Meet the Press, August 2018)

Well, what are we to think about this?  I know that I am really disturbed by the fluidity of truth in our world today.  So, I ask the question, “Is there really some “truth” that we can believe is actually true?”  In researching to write this article, I became aware that the word “truth” has many philosophical and semantic meanings, almost as confusing as trying to understand the fluidity of rational response to situations today.  But the question still goes begging for an answer: “What is Truth?”

In an article entitled, “If Truth Isn’t Truth, What Is It?  Truth is correspondence to reality, despite Rudy Giuliani and Jordan Peterson,” Paul Thagard, PhD, writes that “…science finds out about the world…” and, therefore, tells us about what is true.  Further, he continues that there are three kinds of evidence supporting this view. 

•      scientific experiments are remarkably resistant to the desires and efforts of scientist;
•     science is unusual compared to other social enterprises such as religion and fashion design in having a remarkable amount of agreement among its practitioners; and,
•     science has been dramatically successful in spawning technology…[which] requires understanding the world’s physical mechanisms that are largely independent of mind and society. 

Certainly, that really clarifies things, doesn’t it?  Well, at least for the physical world it does; but, what about the “not so physical” world?  

As we experience our lives in today’s society, we keep hearing words like “fake news,” the Giuliani quote, and other statements that don’t coincide with the reality that we see before us.  All of this would lead us to believe that truth is more or less pliable and fluid—St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XIII have labeled this relativism—what ever you believe is true and right—everything depends upon context.  But for us who claim to be Franciscan Christian, this just doesn’t sound right—it has a false ring to our ears.  We know that something is inherently wrong with this approach to life; and, that comes from our solid belief in the simple words of Jesus, “Everyone on the side of truth, listens to me.” (John 18: 37) and “I am the way the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)

So, in light of our belief in the words and life of Jesus, we believe in the concept of “objective truth,”—that “there is an objective truth. It's one truth that's the same for all people. This is the common-sense view. It means there is one answer per question.” (Elliot Temple, FEB 2010, Fallible Ideas Blog.)  What this means for us is contained in the second sentence—"truth is the same for all people.”  In the realm of science this is easily proven—gravity, H₂O, 2+2=4.  In the world of personal interaction, faith, and philosophy, such truth is not as readily apparent, but it does exist for the same reason as the scientific truth does—it is real and agreed upon, through observation and testing by a great many people—it’s  wrong to kill others, it’s wrong to steal from others, it’s right to care for others.  We call these sorts of agreement—both physical and philosophical—universal knowledge.  Knowing that there is a universal knowledge not dependent upon context is comforting and provides a level of certitude.  

But, can we know for certain what is true?  “I accept that we never know what the truth is for sure. We can be mistaken. But to be mistaken, there [must] be an objective truth! The idea of a mistake is that there is a truth and we have it wrong.” (Elliot Temple, FEB 2010, Fallible Ideas Blog.)  

What does all of this have to do with being a Franciscan, you may ask?  Actually, it’s quite simple.  We have the advantage of 2,000 years (if you count the Old Testament—4,000 years) of the Church discussing, formulating, testing, and proving that the tenents of God explained through the inspired texts of the Bible are true and right.  We have the advantage of witnessing through the history of the Church, hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of these tenets working rightly.  Consequently, we know that the ideas, philosophies, instructions, and examples of our Christian faith are universal knowledge and, therefore, are objective truth.  We know that we are right to follow the principles that are contained in the Catechism—in our Franciscan Rule.  We know that, despite all of the modern efforts to undermine what truth is, those who accept relativism are just, plain wrong.  Our moral life is not dependent upon opinion.  Certain actions and ways of behaving are not only inappropriate, but sinful.  We know that the need for getting set “right with the Lord” is our way of Life.  We know that we have a measuring stick that is true and correct.

And this is why St. Francis calls us to be Brothers & Sister of Penance.  Our human predilection naturally goes against the commands of God (Original Sin), but yet begs us to set things right through contrition and penance.  We know that if we follow the examples of St. Francis and adhere to the principles of self-sacrificing love as outlined in Matthew 25, we are headed in the right direction.  We know that our Rule of Life directs us to the true way to live our lives and that the Franciscan charism of helping the poor (in both physical and spiritual ways) is just plain the right thing to do.  Contrary to the philosophy of today’s relativistic world, we are reassured that our chosen way of life is good and right and true.  So, we carry on with contemplation, prayer and self-sacrificing service, just as St. Francis asks us to do. 

Pace e bene