Grateful for Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding....

A few years ago, I was speaking with a young man, barely out of his teens, about his girlfriend, who was about to get an abortion.  When I reminded him that it was a baby, a child, that they were about to kill, his response to me was, "That's your opinion."  The implication was that his "opinion" was as valid as mine, that there was no objective reality or truth to be had in this case, and so he was morally free to follow whichever "opinion" was most convenient for them.

In the face of such relativism in today's world, I am most grateful for Truth, a standard which exists outside of ourselves.  When I go to the doctor, I do not want his "opinion," unless it is based on scientific and verifiable data.  My very life depends on his wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the human body and its functions.  When I take my car to the mechanic, I do not want his "opinion," unless he knows what he is talking about -- unless he has true knowledge of the hidden workings of my vehicle, and an understanding of its malfunction in this particular instance.

From the very beginning of Christianity, faith has been based on objective Truth, on the fact that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, has been crucified by the opinions of the world, has resurrected and has been seen by those who believe and accept Him.  Like the doctor and the mechanic, the magisterium, or teaching body of the Church, has dedicated itself to seeking Truth, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the things of God and of Jesus Christ.

Labeled as "fundamentalist" today by the world which has built a dictatorship of relativisim, the doctrine and creed of the Church is rooted in friendship with Christ, which opens mankind up to all that is true and good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth.

In his book God or Nothing, Robert Cardinal Sarah points out that we have built in today's world "...a fraternal Tower of Babel in which everybody has a particle of the truth.  Modern relativism goes so far as to claim that it is the embodiment of liberty.  In this sense, liberty becomes the aggressive obligation to believe that there is no higher truth; in this new Eden, if a man rejects the truth revealed by Christ,  he becomes free.  Life together in society assumes the form of an impassable horizon within which each individual can control his own moral, philosophical, and religious views."

In a recent (May 2018) article by Bishop Robert Barron, he writes about the White House Correspondents Dinner where Michelle Wolf, a comedian, "... crossed over into the territory of the morally appalling when she indulged in this bit of witticism regarding Vice President Mike Pence: 'He thinks abortion is murder, which, first of  all, don't knock it until you've tried it. And when you do try it, really knock it, you know. You gotta get that baby out of there.' ....It might be helpful to remind ourselves what Ms. Wolf is referencing when she speaks of 'knocking that baby out of there.' She means the evisceration, dismemberment, and vivisection of a child."

Barron's comment on the White House Dinner and its speakers is that "When we live in the space beyond good and evil, when morality is construed as entirely the invention of personal freedom, when nothing counts as intrinsically wicked, when any claim to moral authority is automatically shouted-down ---in other words, when we live in the world that Nietzsche made  possible -- then the will of the most powerful necessarily holds sway.  And when something or someone gets in the way of what the powerful want, well then, they just "gotta knock it out of there."

In a world such as this, I am profoundly grateful for the moral compass and teaching authority of the Church, for men and women whose lives are dedicated to the Truth, and who can give a wider and broader perspective on people such as Michelle Wolff, who would shout down and shut down any objection to their "opinion" on what is good for society.  Every Christian has the obligation to pursue Truth through prayer and study.  But often we are inarticulate and voiceless in the dictatorship of relativism; we do not know what to say or even to think.

Jesus said, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."  As Robert Cardinal Sarah writes, "The job of the theologian consists of entering into the Word of God so as to seek to grasp it rationally, to the extent possible, and to share it with the utmost clarity with the people of his time.....Baptized people have the duty to believe not only with their heart but also with their intellect."  We desperately need the church, with its saints and theologians, to guide our hearts and minds today.  The world seeks to overwhelm our capacity to love and to think clearly with its doctrines of relativism: all things must be accepted as true and good.  But Pope John Paul II's encyclical (1998) opens with these words: "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth....Men will then be able to understand that the finest human intellect is nothing without the light from heaven, of which the Father gives us a spark through faith." 

Without the light of faith, mankind stumbles through a profound darkness, not even knowing what it is that makes him stumble.  We were made for communion with God through Jesus Christ, who called Himself The Way and the Truth.  Without that communion, mankind attempts to breathe with only one lung -- reason. And as Cardinal Sarah says, "Without God, man builds his hell on earth."

Thank God for theologians like Bishop Barron and Cardinal Sarah, who can point modern man to the eternal Truth with a lifetime dedicated to wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.  Without these modern prophets, the darkness would surely overwhelm us.