What is Truth?

Today is the feast day of Christ The King.  The gospel for today (JN 18:28-40) speaks of Jesus as being a king of the Jews --- who want to crucify him.  It also mentions Pilate asking Him: “What is truth?”

We’d all like to think that we are important and, that at least to some degree, the decisions we make are important, but in today’s gospel we have Pilate making a decision which truly could change the world: What if Pilate had said to the Jews that Jesus would not be crucified?  What if he said: “The truth of the matter is that this is an innocent man, and I will not allow his execution?”  What would have happened then?  The world would have changed.

But, Pilate didn’t do that.

Why?

He, in fact, knew Jesus was an innocent man, yet he ruled otherwise, because Pilate was a man who put his own self esteem and his own comfort above the truth about Jesus.  Oh, Pilate did recognize some truths all right --- like that he was the Emperor’s representative in Palestine whose past rulings had alienated the Jewish leaders, and that another riot (which seemed to be brewing before him) might cause his downfall.  Seeing this with his heart, Pilate said: “That’s MY truth.”  Pilate was interested more in his career, prestige and success than what was true and right.  His worldly ambitions blinded him to Truth Itself.  He chose an earthly kingdom over a heavenly one.

In making that choice, he was not that much different from most of us.

What is truth?  If we see it, why don’t we follow it; why don’t we do it?  Listen to what Jesus said: “Yes, I am a king.  I was born for this; I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth, and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.”

I read a meditation (#295) in the book The Better Part which speaks to the heart of this Gospel better than I ever could:

“Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.  Here Jesus teaches us the secret to intimacy with God.  Whoever lets himself be led by what is true will be drawn into communion with Christ and will hear and heed God’s ceaseless invitations to follow Him more closely.  But being led by truth requires humility.  It requires a higher authority than oneself:  if I am obliged to discover, accept, and conform to what is objectively true (morally, physically, historically), then I am not autonomous.  I am not the master of my universe.  I am not God.  That act of humility, which frees us from the enervating bonds of selfishness, is hard to make.  Our fallen human nature tends towards pride, towards self-sufficiency, control, and dominance.  To resist that tendency requires courage.  It takes courage to obey the truth and expose oneself to the burning love of God.  May He grant it to us all in abundance.”

Next week begins the season of Advent.  It is a good time to meditate on truth, our lives, and humility.  We’re soon to celebrate Jesus’ birth, Who, in truth, was born to die for us.  In the utmost of humility, that was a truth He lived to do.  We need to ask ourselves what we are living to do --- to be like Pilate living out our worldly ambitions, or to be who we were created to be?

What is truth?  Pilate said: “Here is MY truth,” but there is only one truth, and we are not gods to define it.  Jesus told us in very simple words what the truth is:  I AM.