May 12, 2020 Reflection – Truth: eternal, constant and up to date!
(c) Mary TV 2020 Truth: eternal, constant and up to date! May 12, 2020 Dear Family of Mary! “Dear children, this is a time of gratitude. Today I ask love from you. Don’t look for faults in others and don’t judge others. I expect you to love and to spread the truth because the truth is eternal, constant and always up to date. Bring the light of my Son. Drive out the darkness that wants to seize you more and take you far away from my Son, Jesus. Don’t worry, I am with you. Thank you for responding to my call.” (May 4, 2020) “I expect you to love and to spread the truth because the truth is eternal, constant and always up to date…” It is always good to review important building blocks of our faith. And one of them is “the Truth”. Our Lady brings it up often. And in this message, she says three things about truth, that it is eternal, constant and always up to date! Before we talk about these three aspects of the truth, I thought we could read a bit from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Here is a passage which gives a good overview of what is meant by truth and what our relationship to it must be. It is from the discussion of the 8th Commandment, “Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (I left the footnotes in and listed the references at the end. It is helpful to look up the scriptures…) I. Living In The Truth 2465 The Old Testament attests that God is the source of all truth. His Word is truth. His Law is truth. His “faithfulness endures to all generations.”255 Since God is “true,” the members of his people are called to live in the truth.256 2466 In Jesus Christ, the whole of God’s truth has been made manifest. “Full of grace and truth,” he came as the “light of the world,” he is the Truth.257 “Whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”258 The disciple of Jesus continues in his word so as to know “the truth [that] will make you free” and that sanctifies.259 To follow Jesus is to live in “the Spirit of truth,” whom the Father sends in his name and who leads “into all the truth.”260 To his disciples Jesus teaches the unconditional love of truth: “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes or No.’”261 2467 Man tends by nature toward the truth. He is obliged to honor and bear witness to it: “It is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons . . . are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth.”262 2468 Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy. 2469 “Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another.”263 The virtue of truth gives another his just due. Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what ought to be expressed and what ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty and discretion. In justice, “as a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the truth.”264 2470 The disciple of Christ consents to “live in the truth,” that is, in the simplicity of a life in conformity with the Lord’s example, abiding in his truth. “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth.”265 256 Rom 3:4; Cf. Ps 119:30. 257 Jn 1:14; 8:12; cf. 14:6. 258 Jn 12:46. 259 Jn 8:32; Cf. 17:17. 260 Jn 16:13. 261 Mt 5:37. 262 DH 2 § 2. 263 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,109,3 ad 1. 264 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,109,3, corp. art. 265 1 Jn 1:6. (Part Three – Life In Christ, Section Two- The Ten Commandments – Chapter Two “You Shall Love Your Neighbor As Yourself” – Article 8 – The Eighth Commandment – I. Living In The Truth – http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a8.htm ) We all know how precious the truth is, especially in this age of mass media, and the proliferation of “news”. We hunger to the truth. Thank the Lord that He is our Truth, and we will always be at peace in Him. In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2020 PS. Let’s remember to pray this short but powerful prayer to the Holy Spirit: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love. V. Send forth Thy Spirit and we shall be created. R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth. Let us pray. O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit didst instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant by the same Spirit that we will be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.