Veritas, Αληθεια, Правда, אמן

(veritas, alethea, pravda, amen)
Reflections on Truth and its Power for Freedom

"What is truth?" Pilate asked. (John 18:38)

That question rings throughout history with an uneasy silence. Uttered by the representative agent with all the might of imperial Rome, appointed to be that pivot of reason in a testy, illogical province bordering on insanity, the Roman prefect questioned a flogged Prisoner betrayed by his own countrymen the singularly hardest question the wisest could have asked. How do you even frame the basis for all reason? Can you use a falling apple to explain gravity?

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)

We understand facts by our intellect. Firing neurons and synapses billions of times a second. Quadrillion bits of information processed and accessed and regressed in a blink. Truth, however, relates to the heart. Truth is essential to breaking and softening the heart, just as the lack of truth (unbelief) hardens and deadens the heart. It is with our hearts that we truly worship, when Christ tells the samaritan woman, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24) True (truthFUL) worship resonates at the spiritual and heart level; to record, from latin recordare, to commit to the heart. Mi corazon! My Heart! the Core, or Coeur. That basal level of consciousness, the seat of the soul, the source of human imagination- that's what truth is about, and the source of life and true freedom.

But what of truth? Why do we even ask about truth? It sometimes seems better to live without truth. Sometimes better to leave things to irrational acts of random and suffer no consequence of irresponsibility. A fable or a myth? But there is an uneasy undergirding of Truth that nothing, yea, no one, can escape from, like gravity; the basis, the very framework of existence. You do not know, because you do not ask.

Truth sustains order in the universe; it gives our very existance a basis for construct. And Christ (Truth) is before all things, and by him all things consist (Col 1:17). All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. (John 1:3) The very uniqueness about Truth is it needs nothing but itself to exist; it needs no prior cause.

Transcending logic, Truth, is that key to unlocking the meaning of life, to give direction to mindless wanderings of the soul and the idle languish of intellect. It fuels our conscience and gives reprieve to tossy emotions, anchoring it. While it holds us in place, it also serves as a ballast, lifting us off the quagmire of fallen humanity.

5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." (John 14)

If we walk in Truth, and have Truth as guiding principals for our actions, thoughts and words, then there is no fear- no fear in the unknown, the untruth, no fear from slandering lies, no fear from the Accuser, who daily seeks to defeat us by our own untruthfulness. Lies and slander have no hold in the face of righteousness, and the purveyors of shadow cannot stand in the sunlight of Truth when it shines in our souls (John 12:35).

Jesus, You are truth! You are Way and You are Life! You hold all things true, and your promises are Yes and Amen! You cannot be unfaithful because you cannot deny yourself- Truth; truth holds for eternity- it needs nothing but itself to sustain. It is not dependant on time or space- Truth Is. Help us to cling to Truth! Jesus, who else can we go to? You have the Words of Eternal Life! (John 6:68) Truth gives us temporal creatures a glimpse into the eternal, when time ceases to exist. We are creatures of another Kingdom.

16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. (John 17)

36Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." 37"You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." 38"What is truth?" Pilate asked. (John 18)

dicit ei Iesus
ego sum Via et Veritas et Vita,
nemo venit ad Patrem nisi per me (John 14:6)