Tag

attitude

More on Our Attitudes Toward Truth

By | Philosophy and Culture | 2 Comments

I’ve talked and written before about the necessity of a proper attitude towards truth.

I often draw a connection between the attitude of some of the more notoriously un-Christ-like fundamentalist Christians and that of militant atheists. In these two groups who seem to be such polar opposites, I think we can rightly identify a similar attitude toward truth and thus toward each other.

For both, the truth is something they have discovered and planted their own flag in.  Because of a fierce possessiveness toward Truth, as they see it, they are not able to recognize it in any other group. Because of an over-confidence in themselves, their understanding of truth becomes crystallized in their minds and they are unable to continue learning more or going beyond their own understanding.

For both, Truth becomes no more than an idol of their own making – one to which they insist others do homage.

This is not the attitude toward truth that we see in the lives of the Saints. Even these great men and women who have found themselves so close to Truth Himself, never became overconfident or prideful about the truth they experienced. Rather, their humility toward truth (and others) is one of their greatest virtues. Here is a great quote from St. Augustine that a Dominican Brother at my parish clued me in on:

Seeing Thy truth is neither mine nor his nor another’s; but belongs to us all whom Thou callest publicly to partake of it, warning us terribly, not to account it private to ourselves, lest we be deprived of it. For whosoever challenges that as proper to himself, which Though propoundest to all to enjoy, and would have that his own which belongs to all, is driven from what is in common to his own;that is, from truth, to a lie. For he that speaketh a lie, speaketh it of his own. (The Confessions of St. Augustine Book XII 34.)

The saints always recognized the truth as something bigger than themselves, given by God to all. Their idea of the truth never crystallized in their minds or was something they presumed to possess a monopoly on. Rather, truth was always understood to be infinitely greater and more mysterious than they could ever imagine. Far from possessing it or discovering it, they were the ones possessed and discovered.

One the values of making this distinction between attitudes toward truth, is that the saintly examples clue us in to the attitude not only beneficial for our own souls but for those we come in contact with.

When we rightly see truth as something bigger, better, and beyond our imaginings, we become like the disciples who have first met Jesus. We run back with joy in our eyes to invite others to come hear this man who speaks like no one we have ever heard before. We don’t hang back and grumble like the scribes and pharisees, convinced and possessive of our own truth and unwilling to grow. If truth is bigger than and outside of ourselves, suddenly we are no longer enemies or even opponents in the search for truth. Rather, we are all children of the truth and thus we can invite each other into greater fullness of truth without competition.

With humility toward truth and our neighbor, we are able to affirm truth and goodness when we see it in others and use this to call both of us on to a greater fullness of truth. Recall the passage in the Book of Acts where Paul encounters the Greeks, whose culture was definitely a mixed bag as truth is concerned:

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, [1] 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; [2] (Acts 17:22-28)

Paul, a man definitely not lacking intensity and fervor, was humbly able to see the seeds of truth that already existed in the Greek culture. Rather than calling them to something opposite from their culture, he expounded on the seeds of truth and called the Greeks to pursue these to their fullness.

It is simply human nature to pursue truth, often in all the wrong places, but nevertheless. Far from attempting to extinguish or discourage the search for truth, we must affirm it in others we encounter and invite them to consider the claims of Christianity in light of this search.  John Paul II writes:

“Men and women are on a journey of discovery which is humanly unstoppable – a search for the truth and a search for a person to whom they might entrust themselves.  Christian faith comes to meet them, offering the concrete possibility of reaching the goal which they seek. (Encyclical: On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason, September 14, 1998 Pope John Paul II)

Every person is longing for Jesus Christ, for His Church, for His truth. We need to pick up on these longings and show people that in Christ they are not abandoning the glimpses of beauty, truth, and goodness they have already encountered. Whether they know it or not, people have experienced glimpses of the divine in culture, art, education, family, literature, movies, and other areas of life.  We must show them that in Christianity they have the possibility of “reaching the goal which they seek”: Christ,  the source of all Beauty, Truth, and Goodness.

We are not calling people to a foreign, alien land. We are inviting prodigal sons and daughters – like ourselves – to come home.

Let’s make sure they feel at home when they decide to visit, shall we?

One’s Attitude Towards Truth

By | Philosophy and Culture, Why Aren't We Saints? | No Comments

I think it is important to evaluate our attitude toward truth and our beliefs. It is important to how we interact with other, especially those of differing beliefs, but also, perhaps more important to the integrity of our own character – for if our character becomes corrupted, our interactions with other will not show much fruit.

A few lines of scripture got me thinking today. Check these out:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mass reading a while back was from the first book of Corinthians.

1 Cor 8:1b-7, 11-13

Brothers and sisters:
Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up.
If anyone supposes he knows something,
he does not yet know as he ought to know.
But if one loves God, one is known by him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Catholics, we believe that the teachings of the Church and the scriptures and traditions passed to us through the Church are indeed true. Also, we believe God is real because we believe we have met Him. He has come to us in prayer, in the Eucharist, and shown his grace and guidance throughout our lives. We have met truth and put our faith in Him.

What then should our attitude toward the truth be?

I think this is an important question because, quite frankly, we are not very good at sharing the truth, and I believe our attitudes toward it can sometimes be the culprit. Unfortunately these examples of bad attitudes toward truth are the only ones our culture really picks up on and pays attention to – the religious people who are rude, overbearing, intolerant (in a proper sense of tolerance), and thoroughly uncharitable though they claim to have met truth and charity Himself.

As I myself have grappled with this issue and with my own attitudes for truth, especially during my time on a secular college campus, I did a lot of reexamining of how I regard truth.

Something I realized was this: I always thought of myself as one who had found truth. I thought I had figured it out, I thought I had found God and come into relationship with him, and I thought I had made sense out of Catholic doctrine to the satisfaction of my intellect. Furthermore, when talking to people of other faiths and beliefs, I regarded myself as possessing the truth which the rest of the world needed.

Its not that the Truths that we believe aren’t “true” – that’s not what I’m getting at at all. Rather, I think we need to take a look at our attitudes toward Truth.

Did I find the truth, or did the Truth find me?
Some things may make sense to me, but do I really have it all figured out?
Is truth really something I “have” or “posess”?
Is it something I have found or subdued, or is it something so much greater and mightier than I could conceive of, something which, far from having subdued, have barely peeked out at from the bushes?

Here’s the thing: Even when God has called us into His church, into His very Body, and fed us with His own flesh, so that we are indeed in communion with Truth Himself, surely the only proper attitude is awe and wonder and adoration of Truth, right?

If my attitude is snobbery, arrogance, or of one who thinks he has conquered or subdued truth, then people are quite right to question whether I have met Truth at all.

The first thing we have to be sure, thus, is that we really have met truth. Go seek Christ. this takes silence and patience. Also, learn your faith – there is much more there than you ever imagined – beauties and treasures we often ignore.

Then, when we encounter others we must keep in mind that WE HAVE NOT FOUND TRUTH – He has found us. We aren’t wise gurus who the rest of the world needs to listen to, we are the little children playing at Jesus’ feet who run off to tell our friends and everyone of the incredible teacher in our midst.

We can’t “give” Truth/the faith/Christ to people as if it/He was some token that we posses.

We didn’t figure the faith out, we didn’t find God, we certainly didn’t discover Truth. Our attitude must always be one of submission to truth, one of awareness that we are infinitely smaller than our creator and infinitely undeserving of His seeking us out and saving us.

What is really going on, and thus what our attitude should reflect, is that we have met Him, and we want others to meet Him too. Not only is this attitude the correct one, it is the only attitude with which God can work through us to reach out to others.

I think i’ll continue this reflection in a “Part 2” as there is more to be said about evangelization and ecumenical dialogue itself. With our attitude towards truth in mind, how might we re-evaluate how we talk to other people? How might it change the way we talk especially to non-believers?

Just some things to think about.

Your fellow Truth-seeker,

JM