What is truth?

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Truth is neither a thing, nor an idea, nor a school of thought.

Newsdesk (July 25, 2021 12:15, Gaudium Press) Every child asks questions. A lot them. All the time, about everything.

We ourselves, as children, filled our parents with questions. They, in turn, asked the same of our grandparents. Today it is our children’s turn. And even in the eyes of babies we can already glimpse a questioning mind, announcing the arrival of a new generation of curious people.

Now, behind these questions we can discern the human instinct to search for truth. This is what man does the most; one could almost say that it is his main occupation.

Think of the student, who examines books and professors, the scientist, who delves into the tiniest portions of matter, man is always seeking to unravel the secrets of the universe.

In fact, the work of science is nothing but a constant questioning about the truth hidden in things.

And, paradoxically, man, so often dubious and a liar, thinks he has the right to demand straight and truthful answers from others. For this reason, when he learns of a piece of news, a discovery, a statement, he immediately asks himself: “Is it true?

Well, he would not live so anxiously in search of the truth if he did not intuit the existence of an absolute Truth. Ever since he begins to think, the human being raises questions about it, but even though he senses its existence, he cannot define it.

And, just as Pilate asked the Divine Master, “What is truth?” (Jn 18:38), today many are asking, “Does truth really exist?”

Each philosophical school answers this in its own way: there are those that claim to own the truth, others that deny the possibility of knowing it, and others that, at the other extreme, affirm that it does not exist.

If the world today seems to be drifting aimlessly, is it not precisely because it has lost the compass that guides it to the truth? Or even the very notion of the essence of this Truth?

More and more people start to live detached from reality. For Truth is not a thing, nor an idea, nor a school of thought… It is a Person!

Someone who, by becoming incarnate, wanted to reveal Himself to us and bring us the Truth, which is Himself, according to His statement: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6).

Yes, Jesus Christ is the Truth, who dwelt with the Apostles, died on the Cross, but remains in all those who keep His words, that is, practice His commandments (cf. Jn 14:15; 14:23).

Life, Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and true God. This is Truth. Truth that came for His own, but was rejected by them (cf. Jn 1:11).

Rejection that the world reserves also for all those who are truly and sincerely insatiable lovers of the Truth… because the Truth is infinite!

Text extracted, with adaptations, from Heralds of the Gospel Magazine n. 151, July 2014.

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