The Splendor of Truth Creates Unity
By Richard Salbato
"And we entreat the Lord with all our
heart to guide us to full unity so that
the splendor of the truth, which
alone can create unity,
will again become visible in the
world,"
Pope Benedict XVI
Only Truth creates Unity
Since John XXIII the Catholic Church has
worked to end the 1000 year old divisions in the Christian world. What caused these divisions was not Doctrine
but power. Nonetheless, it was corrupting truth that gave excuses for these
divisions. To bring back truth the last
five Popes have asked the Christian world to come to the table and talk,
dialogue.
Talk about what? Although the divisions have been power and pride, the excuse for
these divisions has been truth. If we
come to the same truth we come to unity and this is what must be talked
about. To come together for these talks
on truth, the leaders have given all kinds of reasons for dialogue - working
together to end war, working together to end secularism, working together to
end poverty, working together in love. They have also tried to point out what
binds them together - the same love of Christ, the same bible, the same
Baptism, in some cases the same Apostolic Succession and some of the same
sacraments.
But in the end what divides is different
perceptions of the truth of Christ and His Church. Only God has all the truth but what truth He has revealed to us
we must hold as true. This revealed
truth must be the glue the binds us together.
There are some Christian truths that are not so important and others
that are very important. The difference in the hierarchy of truths must also be
found for there to be real unity of truth.
Also in social or scientific unity there must be unity of truth.
Truth of God
Theology is the study of God and His
creation. We have natural and
supernatural theology. Natural is
knowing God through natural reason and supernatural is knowing God through
Divine Revelation - ratio naturalis, ratio fide illustrata, ea quae fata sut,
revelatio divina, Deus unus, Crator et Dominus and Deus et Trius. Positive Dogmatic Theology is the Teaching
Authority of the Church from Revelation, Scripture and Tradition.
The ideal lies in the harmonious coalescence
of authority and reason and although the Authority of the Church is
never flawed, reason is often flawed.
The Catholic Church teaches (infallibly)
that if a baptized person deliberately denies or doubts a dogma properly
so-called, he is guilty of the sin of heresy, and automatically becomes subject to excommunication, ipso facto (by the
fact). The teaching of Christ that must
be believed are classified by the way they are revealed - fides divina, fides catholica,
de fide definita, fides ecclesiastica, etc. Those who do not even want to know what these mean may be classified
as those who do not want to know truth other than the perception of truth in their
own minds and prejudices.
In the early Church the prime doctrinal
heresies were on the Nature of God (who and what is God) and of course this is
very important because this is who we believe in. Between the seventh century and the turn of the millennium it was
the different actions of the three people of the Trinity and Unity of God. In the fifteenth Century there came the
arguments of what was essential to believe, in the eighteenth Century came the
idea that everyone had a right to believe whatsoever they wanted and in the twentieth Century came (for the
first time) the denial of God all together and the rise of Communism and
Humanism.
You fight these heresies with truth and
the proof of truth. But to fight you
must be able to communicate and often people do not want to hear truth because
it disturbs the pre-conceived ideas that they want to cling to. You must also know that people have
different ideas of what words mean, like "Love", "Mercy",
"Truth" and often we have conflicts because we have different ideas
of the same words used. One of these
words is "Church".
In a few months there will be a meeting
between the different divided Churches to dialogue on theological
doctrine. The theme of this meeting is the concept
"Church".
Once this concept is held by all the different Churches in the same way,
there will be unity. This is the most
important question and the most important truth for the sake of unity.
What does Christ mean by "His
Church" and are we in it. To some
this means united in Baptism, all the teachings of Christ, a physical unity and
a unity in the Sacraments, to others only Baptism and Fundamental ideas of
faith, to others, ritual, and to others profession and no more. What must be found and loved is what God
meant by Church. Without this love of
truth, there will never be unity. The concept
"Church" is the essential truth that will bring people together.
Truth is Universal
One of the great heresies of the 20th
Century is that truth is relative - what was true in the 7th Century
is not true in the 20th - or what is true to one might not be true
to another person. This is crazy. What is true is true for all times and for
all people or it is not truth but perception.
One can have a different perception of a truth because of upbringing or prejudices
but no two opposite views on any truth can be true. They can be both wrong but they cannot be both right. Truth does not contradict truth.
Truth in History
History itself is untrue depending on who
wrote it and what prejudices they had when writting it. To understand true history (or at least
close to true history) you must read history from the eyes of many different
people. The history of the Reformation
in England from the eyes of Cranmer will be different than from the eyes of
Thomas More. The history of American
will be different from the eyes of Jefferson than it will be from English
historians. In Islam the history of Mohamed
is not the same as his history by Christians.
Even the death of Christ, historically, is different by Christians, Jews
and Moslems. And yet it is from history
that we learn most truths, the history of science, the history of countries,
the history of thought, the history of religion, the history of God. When we have a wrong education of one of
these histories, we end up with a false belief.
Truth in Science
Even the truth of science, which is
supposed to seek only truth falls far short of truth. Newton found truths and for years they were held as gospel, but
latter others discovered that not all that Newton taught was true. Science is evolving towards truth but it has
a long way to go. Every scientific
"Truth" today will be found in time to be partly true and partly
false.
No One Has All the Truth
Only God has all the truth, but we humans
are human because we have a logical brain and this brain, this passion, this
ability to learn seeks truth. It does
not seek falsehood. Truth in every
aspect of our lives is critical. But we
must always seek what can never be known totally. What we know for sure, through logic and divine revelation, we
must hold on to like a great gem, for it is in truth that we find God, peace,
mercy and love. If we are truly human
as apposed to animal, we learn truth little by little through history, whereas
the animal is doomed to the same existence from one generation to the
other. When the world ends we will not
know all the truth, but we must seek it.
Are we the Judge of Truth?
Yes and No! We must judge what is true and what is not for this is how we
come to believe a thing to be true. But
if we judge based on a little knowledge of something, we are not going to come
to a sound perception of truth. If we
use all the facts known to the world at the time and use our cognitive
reasoning we can come to a truth or at least a part truth that is sound.
Truth can be known through observation and
deductive reasoning. Even things we
cannot see or even imagine can be known through logic, like that fact that two parallel
lines can never meet together if they are truly parallel. We can know but cannot see or even imagine
that space has no end to it. We know by
observation that everything physical changes in time.
In the realm of the supernatural there are
truths we can know by divine revelation backed up by miracles. Miracles are facts and we cannot just
pretend they do not exist. Miracles
bear witness to the truth we find hard to understand or believe. But the fact of miracles should make logical
minds cling to the supernatural truth that miracles bear witness to. Christ said, "If you do not believe me,
believe my works." St. Paul said,
"I do not come to you with great words, but with the power of God."
Our Perception of Truth
If we truly love truth we must see if what
we believe to be true is not based on our background, family, friends,
education, environment, and even our fears.
If our perception of truth is based on limited knowledge and it differs
from those more educated, we should look hard at why we differ from others on
the same subject. Of course
differences can be harmless like people seeing something from two different points
of view, but important truths must be seen from all points of view and not from
ignorance.
Nothing is more stupid than someone having
an opinion on something that they know nothing about. The honest person will say, "I do not know." The proud person says, "I just know"
even though he cannot make an argument for his belief.
Truth in Relationships
Pope Benedict XVI said, "truth enlightens, it allows one to
discern the path of genuine human relationships, to correct errors, to be
reconciled with oneself and with others, and to be transparent in negotiations
and faithful to one's word."
If you know someone to lie, even if he is
lying to be kind or friendly, can you ever trust what he says? True friendships and true relationships
always are based on truth, even if that truth is to correct the errors of
another person, and even if that correction causes some friction. If we love truth, then we always
will the good of others, and not with our selfish desire to keep friendships at
the cost of truth.
Even that person who is guided by true mercy will yield his right on the
supposition only if he does not, by doing so, bring moral harm to his
debtor.
Denying Truth for friendship
The biggest violation of truth comes from
a false idea of friendship. Our desire
for friends leads us to agree with others for the sake of harmony at the
expense of truth. True friendships are
based on truth because without this shared truth, everything is a phony
friendship. People do not have to know
everything about each other but those critical things that effect a relaxed
harmony of a relationship must be based on honesty.
Insecure people will agree with anything
to win a friend. Drug addicts cling to
like minded people because it supports their ego and will not condemn
them. This is not true love, but is
self love. True love wills the good in
others even if it causes friction and conflict. Without love, it is not true friendship. This is true in families and in love relationships. All relationships must be based on truth.
Unity Comes From The Love of Truth
All divisions come from clinging to false
ideas or denying what we know to be true.
Some people who know they are wrong about something in the past, but out
of pride refuse to admit it, hold on to divisions, even promote their known
lies to protect their own reputations, when all that it takes to have harmony
is to admit and fault and ask forgiveness.
Others who know the truth regarding others refuse to get involved less
they create enemies by showing truth to those in fault, thereby allowing the
lies to continue to harm the other person.
All would be better off if truth was loved
and embraced for justice and peace. When we are divided over some issue that we truly believe to be
truth then we should confront the person or persons with our evidence to the
truth and hope that will be accepted so that harmony and love return to the
relationships. Silence
over problems will only divide people more. Confrontation, as hard is it seems to be, is
better than harboring evil thoughts and hatred. The answer is to talk things out.
Dialogue Towards Truth
This is true of all divisions. We must talk and talk and talk until we all
hold fast to the truth, in faith, in history, in relationships. When it comes to God, He is very exact when
it comes to His truth, and this must be found in all love and justice. When it comes to divisions within the
Church, this is not God like, and when it comes to divisions of different
Churches this is against the will of God.
We must find common ground and that common ground is truth no matter how
painful it may be.
Teaching Truth with Love
"In Truth
-- Peace" is the theme chosen by Benedict XVI for the first World Day of
Peace of his pontificate, to be observed Jan. 1, 2006. "Catholicity
signifies universality-- a multiplicity that becomes unity, a unity that
remains despite the multiplicity," he said.
St. Irenaeus of
Lyon: "This doctrine and this
faith the Church, disseminated throughout the world, guards diligently, forming
almost one single family: the same faith with only
one soul and one heart, the same preaching, teaching, tradition as if having
one voice. Churches of
Germany do not have a different faith or tradition, as neither do those of
Spain, of Gaul, of Egypt, of Libya, of the East, of the center of the earth, as
the sun creature of God is only one and identical in the whole world, so the
light of true preaching shines everywhere and enlightens
all men who wish to come to the cognition of truth"
("Adversus Haereses" I,
10,2).
This is the only way to unity ----- Truth.
But how do we present this
truth in a loving way.
In the next
Newsletter we will show how in all Our Lady's
apparitions She taught
truth and fought against divisions of the Church. From Her methods we will learn now to preach truth without fear
but do it in a loving way.
Next. Our Lady
Defends Truth