God's Truth vs "My Truth"

Right now we look at our culture and see a lot of people saying that there is no absolute truth.

Objective truth is certainly not popular today. There are a lot of people who are saying that they “feel” this way or that about things, or that “their truth” is one thing and that others can have their own truth. We look at our own United States where three out of five American say there’s no absolute truth. Our current teachers and political leaders and millennials’ numbers are that four out of five believe that there is no absolute truth. But the good news now Is the only one out of two true Christians believe that there are no moral absolute truths. So, they are OK with people stating that it’s just fine to say that there is no God and they think this is valid, not just another opinion, but a valid way to think.

Only five years ago nobody wondered how many genders there are. Now you can’t even talk about “gender” without being censored or ridiculed, especially if one says that there are only two genders and that the others are aberrations or false. I have been asked many times what my pronouns are. I find this very odd. Others certainly do not.

What was once the LGBT queue group is now much extended, and who knows how many letters there are today? I sure don’t. The horrifying thing is that they may be allowing adult/child relationships to be included in the accepted “genders”. This is horrifying, especially to those who have experienced the horrors of pedophelia, as a victim or as the parent or other family member or friend of a victim.

This idea of subjective truth has also affected our spiritual ideas about religion in our culture. It is very troubling that 80% of Christians now believe that a person can get to heaven without any belief in Jesus Christ even in normal circumstances. They believe that all one has to do is be a “nice person” or a “good person” and not do anything really evil, like kill someone or be a racist.

On another level there are many Catholics who believe that the Eucharist is not really Jesus, but just bread that reminds us of Jesus. This may have started before my generation, but I kind of think it started with us, “boomers“.

I remember the first time I was introduced to this. I was in “Junior College (City College). I was in a Sociology class when a Professor told us: “There are no right or wrong answers, only how you feel”. I remember having a very negative reaction to this, as my mother and grandparents had taught me just the opposite. I didn’t like it at all and I still disagree completely. I raised my hand and asked: “Are you sure?” He didn’t like being put on the spot like that and simply ignored the question. Right now I am at the point in life where I don’t really mind if people disagree with me on that. My concern is that this nonsense is being taught to our children.

In my first parish I was invited to the home of a young couple. I knew they had a little boy. They lived not far from the parish and so I drove to their home one evening. They welcomed me and invited me to sit down in the family room. I was talking with them when the little boy ran in, climbed up on the couch next to me and then onto my lap where he tried to hit me in the face. I blocked his punch and said: “No, don’t do that!” I had a smile on my face. His mother said: “Oh! No! We never tell him no! We want him to learn on his own!” Think about that for a moment. That boy was not going to be taught right from wrong. He was going to have to find out on his own. I replied: “Well, you just told me “No”, didn’t you?”

Do you know anyone who thinks like that woman? I sure do. There are a lot of people who are completely set against teaching children about morality, our faith, Jesus Christ, the Church and what we believe. They say that it’s “child abuse” to indoctrinate children. Meanwhile they have their own indoctrination in mind. They want to make sure that children think like they are told by the culture of death and resentment.

Think about the lies that are currently available in our culture and how much they cost.

What lies can you think of that are in our culture?

Let me get you started:
God is just your imagination.
Any religion is fine.
All you have to do is be a nice person to get to Heaven.
All people of one ethnicity are to blame for everything.
The Church must stay out of all politics.

Any form of disapproval is “hate”.

What real truth can we bring to our culture?

I am very sure that we, as Catholics along with other Christians, must be bold and loving in our response to this insanity in our culture. This isn’t about politics, it’s about real and solid morality. We will get nowhere if we come at this from a position of resentment, anger and hostility. So, what kind of examples do we have? My first thought is Jesus Christ Himself, who stood up to the hypocrisy of the time in which He was in human flesh. Contrary to popular belief Jesus was not trying to tear down religion or oppose the teaching of the Pharisees, but to reform and give real meaning to Judaism and the Pharisees. One of the Pharisees became a follower because he understood this. How did Jesus challenge the situation of His time? How did the early followers of Jesus challenge others after Jesus was crucified, died and was raised from the dead? They were filled with the Holy Spirit and with power to go and preach the Good News. In some situations they were kind and gentle, in others they were adamant and challenging, in all situations they were loving and bold. Now, by “loving” I don’t mean “nice”. Anyone with any experience and who has children knows that love isn’t always “nice”. Love is, however, the willingness to sacrifice for another’s good. That means telling the truth in ways that people can understand and accept.

What is your own way of doing this? I don’t know. Each of us is different. The way someone who is 20 years old is going to do this is very different from an 80 year old person. A person in a big city is probably going to do it differently than a person in the country. A person with a technical job is going to do it differently than a person who works in physical labor or who is a first responder. Each of us has his or her own personal calling and personal response. But all Christians are called to respond.

Several years ago I met a Police Officer for dinner. We’d been friends for years and had met for lunch or dinner about once a week while he was working in our city. He lives quite some distance from here, so he’s not a member of our prish. At dinner he was talking with me about his concern for his own sons, the culture they were growing up in. He looked me in the eye and said: “I want you to be bold in your preaching!” He knew that I was already pretty outspoken. I didn't take this as a negative criticism, but as a challenge from a stalwart friend. It took me a while to process what he really meant. He wasn’t telling me exactly what to do and he wasn’t complaining. He was and still is a great support for me and others in telling the truth and being as honest as possible about “Faith, hope and love”?

It’s not about “My truth”! It’s about THE TRUTH.

How can you do this? How can you be bold?