“Consecrate
them in the truth; your word is truth.”
When
Judas betrayed Our Lord with a kiss, he betrayed love with a kiss, he betrayed
truth with a kiss. The sheer cynicism of
this act was perhaps worse even than the cynicism of Pontius Pilate who when
Our Lord said “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to
bear witness to the truth.”, Pilate responded: “Truth, what is truth?”
The
Twelve apostles symbolized the twelve tribes and hence the fulfilment of God’s
plan for Israel. That’s why it was crucial to replace Judas—so that the Church
in its fullness would receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. But it is interesting to note what criteria
the apostles used to choose Judas’ replacement.
He had to be someone who had been with them from the beginning – who knew
Jesus and His teaching. He had to be
someone who could witness with them to the truth of the Ascension and the
Resurrection. In other words he had to be someone who would be consecrated in the
truth like them, and would be filled with the Spirit of Truth at the coming
feast of Pentecost.
The
High Priestly prayer of Jesus which we have in our Gospel today is often
discussed by commentators for its teaching on unity. But what is often neglected is His teaching
on truth and the need to be consecrated in the truth. Our Lord prays for the apostles to be consecrated
in the truth before He prays for their unity.
This is because the foundation of their unity is precisely the truth for
which He was born to bear witness – it is impossible to build true unity on
anything other than the truth.
Truth
is the conformity of mind and reality. The truth about God is understood when
we accurately grasp the nature and purpose of His creation, and when we believe
in any supernatural revelation He has made. Jesus told us that He is the Way,
the Truth, and the Life, and that the truth would set us free. All truths have
their origin in the Truth who is God made man.
The
truth banishes error, especially idolatry and heresy, because all truth is
found in the Word made flesh. Truth is good and beautiful because it unites us
to the good and beautiful God. He created us so that we may know Him - by
knowing the truth that He is.
I belabor
these points about truth because it is not fashionable to speak about truth
today. Just like it wasn’t fashionable
for the apostles to speak of truth. Just
as the world hated them, so it will also hate us if we stand for truth. People who stand for the truth of Christ are
branded as dogmatic, rigid and legalistic.
The
only notion of truth which the world will accept is the idea of “your truth
being as good as my truth” – relativism. Or truth which evolves and changes to
suit historical circumstances and sentiment – post-modernism or neo-marxism.
This
rejection of truth and war on reality has now gone beyond dogmatic and moral
truths. Even basic scientific truths of
human nature are rejected by suggesting that people can change their sex by a
slice of a scalpel and a fistful of hormones.
Human nature, the nature of marriage, family and reproduction are all
under attack like we have never seen before.
Even
within the Church herself we are seeing the culture of death expand its
grip. It is one thing to cease medical
treatment which has no chance of success, but it is quite another to withdraw
oxygen, water and food from a sick toddler with the deliberate intent to kill
him. I am sure I’m not the only one who
felt ashamed to be Catholic when some of our bishops sided with an intransigent
medical profession and an intrusive state to trample all over the rights of Alfie
Evans and his parents – parental rights which arise from the natural law and
which no earthly court has the authority to revoke.
As
if it wasn’t bad enough that the German bishops had proposed the admittance of
divorced and remarried Catholics to Holy Communion, in just these last few days
we have had yet another proposal from them to admit Protestants to Holy
Communion. Rejecting yet more truths of
the faith in the process.
Why
should this war on truth and reality matter to you and me? Cardinal Eijk of Utrecht last week offered us
a reminder from the Catechism of why it should matter. He said:
“Observing that the bishops and, above all, the
Successor of Peter fail to maintain and transmit faithfully and in unity the
deposit of faith contained in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, I cannot
help but think of Article 675 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“The Church’s ultimate trial
Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass
through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The
persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the
‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an
apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.”
Remaining in the truth of Christ is vital for every last one of us – if we
do not remain in His truth we will not remain in Him, we will not remain in His
Father, we will not remain in Our Father.
And the consequence of that will be final damnation.
Let us pray that this Pentecost the Holy Spirit of truth will consecrate
us in the truth.
