What is Truth?

Jesus said, "For this reason I have come into the world: to testify to the Truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

Pilate answered:  "What is Truth?"

 

Our world today is still asking Pilate's question -- What is Truth?  Is it an amalgamation of facts that we have discovered to be true?  Is it the latest discovery of science? (Were that the case, those living at the time of Jesus could not have known the Truth.)  Are we in the 21st century closer to the Truth now than those living in the first century AD?

 

Jesus promised us, "You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free."  So, obviously, the Truth is not a collection of facts or scientific discoveries.  Even if we knew all the secrets of the universe, they would not set us free.  Truth cannot be a set of doctrines that we believe, for many who hold religious truths are still not free.  Rather, Truth is the Second Person of the Trinity, the Word of God expressing Himself in Christ Jesus.  When He lives in us, He reveals to us who we are and who God is.  He Himself is the Truth that sets us free.

 

"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.  I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known, in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them" (Jn. 17:25).  This is the Truth that sets us free from fear, from slavery to sin, from the world's systems -- the knowledge of God given to us by Christ Jesus dwelling in our inner man.  Jesus promised us the Advocate, who would lead us into all truth, and He told us to ask for that Spirit of Truth. 

 

The new Pope, Francis, has begged Catholics to pray everyday to the Holy Spirit so they can be more sensitive to the things of God:  "If people don't open their hearts to the Holy Spirit to let God purify and enlighten them, then our being Christian will be superficial," said Francis on May 15 to the crowds in St. Peter's Square.  The Pope mentioned Benedict XVI's warnings about relativism, which holds that truth is based on consensus and personal opinion.  "But Jesus is the Truth that came among us so that we could know it," he said.  "Truth isn't seized like a thing," he said; "Truth is met.  It's not a possession; it's an encounter with a Person.

 

From his obvious discomfort in the Gospel, it seems that Pilate did encounter Truth in the Person of Jesus, but he could not convince the Pharisees and leaders of the people to do the same.  They did not want an encounter with the Christ of God, because they did not recognize Him as the Messiah, the One Who came to set them free.

 

Our world has not changed much since that time.