The Catholic Church: The Bearer of Truth
The desire to know the truth is within each one of us. But, what is truth? Can we really ever know the truth? How do we know something is true? Where does truth come from? If we know the truth will it change us? These questions burn inside us and the truth is that we want to know the answers to them. In the sense I will be using it, truth is what is positive, right, and good. Christ, when He comes, tells us a few things about truth. What is truth? Christ answers that question in John 14:6: "Jesus saith to him: 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.'” Jesus is telling us here that He is correctness in its fullest form. He, in fact, is the truth incarnate. His life is the truth. Jesus is God and therefore it follows that God is truth. Truth comes from God. [Before I move forward, I think it is important to point this out: At this stage, we can say that we may either believe Christ is the truth, and therefore everything He says or does is the truth (any extension of Him) or that He is not the truth, and therefore a complete liar. It is the author’s prerogative to assume that Christ is, in fact, the truth itself as He said and therefore everything else in the article follows as a result of this assumption. As 1 John 5:20 says: “'And we know that the Son of God is come: and he hath given us understanding that we may know the true God, and may be in his true Son. This is the true God and life eternal.'”] In John 8:32, he says: “'And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'” Christ is the truth, as He said, He will make us free. By knowing Christ, we know the truth, and that knowledge will make us free – it will satisfy our desire for the truth! One of the things about truth is that there is a value attached to the truth. The truth is positive. It is right, good, desirable, satisfying and from Heaven (as Christ is). We like the truth, naturally, because God made us that way. Lies, are the opposite of the truth and are consequently unsatisfying, bad, evil, undesirable and ultimately from Hell. When we are really searching for the truth we look to Christ, because He said He is truth itself. There are lots of things Christ showed us throughout His life that help us to know the truth. His actions, as an extension of who He is, are true. Because of that, we know the truth by looking at how He lived his life. This is where Sacred Scripture helps us. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give us a window into Jesus’s actions while He was here on earth. It is in that that we can learn the truth. While on earth, Christ taught a lot about truth through word, parable, and deed/example. One that comes to mind of Jesus’s word and truth is when He gives the apostles power, found in John 20:23: “'As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.'” In Luke 15:11-32, Jesus tells the story of the Prodigal Son, giving us a parable so that we can understand the great love of God and His infinite mercy. As for a deed/example I think the greatest is His choice to die on the cross for all of us, which can be found in all four gospels. There are many different examples of each of those three ways Jesus showed us the truth. One of the things Christ said, found in John 18:37, while He was here was that He came “'…For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth My voice.'” So, there are a few questions to be asked. What happens to the truth when Christ leaves? Well, He left us with His words, parables, and deeds to remind us of the truth, Himself, and how we should live our lives. God has revealed Himself and the truth to us, through Christ. How do we know how to interpret what Jesus said, did, or showed us? Well, some are clearly obvious, but others are more subtle, and either way people misinterpret them a lot (even those with good intentions). Thankfully, God already had a plan knowing this would be an issue. That plan is found in Matthew 16:18, where Jesus said to Peter: “'And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.'” I mentioned how lies are straight from Hell itself. Hell, or anti-truth, or lies, will not prevail against the Church. The Church is there to help us know the truth, Christ. We need a guide along the way so that we don’t misinterpret Christ, and Christ Himself knew this as evidenced by His choice to appoint Peter as head of the Church. This is supported by Jesus when He gives Peter the keys of Heaven in Matthew 16:19: “'And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven…'” Christ gave Peter the keys to Heaven. This is significant. Why would Christ give someone the keys to Heaven? He wants us to see how important this action is. A moment before, He says the gates of Hell will not prevail against Peter. Now, if we truly believe Christ is the truth, then His utterance is truth, and the Church would be protected forever. There is only one church that has been around since Christ instituted it and that is the Catholic Church….perhaps not by the name specifically at that first moment, but that IS the Catholic Church. One need only look and see that there were no other Christian Churches for well over a thousand years to understand that the Catholic Church has to be the church Christ instituted, and which He said He would protect. Therefore, the Church has the power through Christ given to Peter to help guide us on our journey to know the truth. The Church has been there and will continue to be there. It has almost been 2000 years that the Church has stood strong despite all of the persecution, despite all of the disasters, despite all of the heresies, despite all of the evil, despite all of the change. God cannot and does not change, and therefore the truth does not change. Contrary to popular belief, the truth is not relative. If I say something is evil (wrong), and you say it is actually not evil (right) only ONE of us can be correct. That’s the nature of the truth. It’s unchanging, and it cannot contradict itself. We will never know all of the truth until we meet God face to face someday (hopefully!), but, until then, we have the Church to guide us and the examples Christ left us. There are thousands of churches that claim to have the truth today and yet these churches have completely different beliefs about the truth: some say abortion is fine, others think it is totally wrong…and a myriad of other issues which I could spend forever getting into, but you know what I mean. So many churches teach that it doesn’t really matter what we believe as long as we accept Christ into our lives, which makes no sense, since we can choose whether to reject or accept God’s saving grace throughout our lives. We NEED the Church in this day and age to help us to discern what is truly wrong and why it makes sense it is wrong so we can live our lives in the truth - Christ. Just look at how confused and messed up the world is, because so many have chosen to reject the truth, not live the truth, or believe the truth is relative (relative means that it is up to the individual to decide, in other words, it can contradict itself). When we finally come to understand the truth as guided by the Church (and led by Christ ultimately) it will challenge us to be the person God calls us to be, and sometimes that means sacrifice, just as Christ did. We have to be willing to change our lives for the truth, Christ. [At this moment, I want to point out that other churches have some elements of truth in them. For example, one church may say that Jesus is merciful, which is true at face value, but they may not teach that Jesus also is just and will condemn people who refuse to follow Him. In other words, it is part of the truth, but not the full truth. Any Christian church has at least some truths because they understand the power of Christ and His sacrifice, but many are missing, rejecting, or misinterpreting some key things.] In the end, truth will survive, and we will either be justified by it or condemned by it. If we look for the truth, with the faith that God will help us find it—through the Church, we surely will. Follow the truth, and one day I hope that I may see the fullness of truth in Christ and that you will join me there!
