Quid est veritas? (Part I)

Quid est veritas? What is truth? As recorded by John in his gospel (18:38), Pilate asks Jesus this question.  I relate to Pilate because I too have and constantly ask this question. And perhaps, you too ask this question.

To respond to this question I found this excerpt:

What is truth? Pilate was not alone in dismissing this question as unanswerable and irrelevant for his purposes. Today too, in political argument and in discussion of the foundations of law, it is generally experienced as disturbing. Yet if man lives without truth, life passes him by; ultimately he surrenders the field to whoever is the stronger (Benedict, Jesus of Nazareth, Ch. 7 Section 3).

Do we surrender truth the the "strongest"?  How do we identify what is truth, especially in regards to morality?  Does objective moral truth exist?

More than once in my life, I have been labeled “black and white” and “narrow-minded.”  And I suppose in 21^st century America, this type of “mind” is a public minority.

I recently read an article called, “The Curse of Broadmindedness” by Fulton Sheen.  I was astonished to see how an article published in 1932 can be so relevant today.  Mr. Sheen says there is confusion over “intolerance” and “tolerance.” 

There is no other subject on which the average mind is so much confused as the subject of tolerance and intolerance. Tolerance is always supposed to be desirable because it is taken to be synonymous with broadmindedness. Intolerance is always supposed to be undesirable, because it is taken to be synonymous with narrow-mindedness. This is not true, for tolerance and intolerance apply to two totally different things. Tolerance applies only to persons, but never to principles. Intolerance applies only to principles, but never to persons. We must be tolerant to persons because they are human; we must be intolerant about principles because they are divine. We must be tolerant to the erring, because ignorance may have led them astray; but we must be intolerant to the error, because Truth is not our making, but God’s.

Persequendum est (this thing must be continued)

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye

I live in slight pain due to a broken bone in my ankle suffered a few weeks ago. While I wish the pain would ease, the injury brings me to reflect on Jesus and the paralytic (Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:18-26) and a point a theologian once made.

The backdrop of the story is this: There's no longer any room in the home where Jesus is teaching, so four men bring a paralytic through the roof. This is a form of intercessory prayer, similar to when I ask a person here on earth or in heaven to pray, “intercede”, for me or when parents serve as intercessors by bringing their baby to be baptized. Jesus can look at the intercessors’ faith and respond.

Here Jesus does just that:

“When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Child your sins are forgiven.’” Jesus responds to the faith of the four men, who are acting as intercessors. The people ask, “Why does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?”

People claimed Jesus cannot forgive sins, only the invisible God can. In modern times, people say a priest cannot forgive sins, only God can. Although Matthew 9:7 states, “...God who had given such authority to human beings” and John 20:23 shows Jesus passing on this authority to the apostles. Thus, men have been given authority by God to forgive sins.

Then Jesus asks a peculiar question:  Which is easier to say “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say “Rise and walk?”

He continues, "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” and the He heals the man.

Jesus performs two miracles here: He forgives the paralytic’s sins. He physically heals the man. Why? The second miracle, a visible one, was performed so that people may believe in the first, an invisible one.

So as I lie here with a broken ankle bone, I ask which miracle is greater?

The forgiveness of sins or the physical healing?

One is invisible, the other visible. One relating to the eternal, the other relating to the temporal.

So which is greater?

Wincing at the pain in my ankle, I would like to have the visible temporal miracle occur right now, but with deeper introspection through the eyes of faith, I realize if given a choice, I’d like the invisible miracle.

The one relating to eternity. 

Some miracles are more than meets the eye.