WHAT IS TRUTH?
Some people, like Pilate, think “truth” is only what you want it to be. What is “true” for me might not be true for others -- it all depends on your outlook, whereas Jesus, in reply to the Roman Governor, said “This is why I was born, and why I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” So, there is something called the truth, something that is not subject to manipulation or distortion, something we can be absolutely sure is true, and this something – truth -- is found in the Bible, in the inspired words of Jesus Christ, true God and true Man. It cannot be otherwise, -- He is God, and what God says must be true, always.
Well, let’s take ‘Mr. Jones’, he says he is a Catholic. He was baptized, raised in the Church, attended Catholic school, married in the Church, attends Mass and recites the Creed every week. He says he believes in God, yes, the Creator of heaven and earth and everything that exists in the universe, including the people. Another core belief is that God being God, he is perfect, he can’t commit a sin, he knows what he is doing, and he creates a separate soul for each one of us. It’s not by accident that we are here; it is by the positive will of God. Mr. Jones agrees with all this because he is a good Catholic. These matters are what he believes – they concern heaven and earth, life and death, -- and that’s religion, not politics.
But good Catholics don’t put the worldly matters ahead of the things of God. This being an election year, we have to review a few things, -- what’s true and what’s false. Mr. Jones knows it’s true that we all come from God, it’s true that by God’s positive will that all of us have life, it’s true that all of us have a purpose in God’s plan, and it’s true that in the end we all have an eternal destiny. Further, since God creates us, he alone has the right to decide when we will die. The 5th commandment tells us: “Thou shall not kill” an innocent person. Children in the womb are certainly innocent children.
It’s false to claim that the mother has a ‘right to choose.’ Where is that in the Bible? It’s false to say that there are too many people; since God creates all of us, that would say he doesn’t know what he is doing, or, he is making a mistake. It’s false to say that there is not sufficient food; distribution problems can happen, but that is a human challenge. Let’s give God a chance. It’s his world and we are his creatures. He certainly knows what he is doing. For a refresher course on “True and False” see #’s 2464 and following in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Let’s join Jesus and stand up the Pilates of this world
Msgr. Richard Hughes