A Reflection for Friday of the Thirty-second week in Abnormal Time
Find today’s readings here.
Due to this fact, we must support such individuals,
in order that we could also be co-workers in the reality. (3 Jn 8)
Perhaps it’s because we’re just a number of days off the midterm elections, and maybe a number of days out from the start of the 2024 presidential campaign, but as I scanned the readings for today, my eyes stopped on the phrase “co-workers in the reality.”
Deciding what’s true isn’t all the time easy, especially when many individuals and organizations and firms looking for power and wealth attempt to persuade us to imagine what just isn’t true. When you occur to live in an area that held competitive political contests this week, what number of ads did you see that spun reality to suit certain political narratives? With the vacation shopping season now in full force, have you ever encountered more ads suggesting that owning certain items will make you happier? In each cases, are they true? How are we to know?
I consulted the Catechism of the Catholic Church for insight about truth.
I take comfort in reading that even the earliest Christians needed prayer and support of their quest to know and to live the reality.
Human beings, the Catechism states, are naturally oriented toward the reality, and we’re obliged to honor and bear witness to the reality. Truthfulness is a virtue, one which applies to our private and non-private lives.
But that’s often easier said than done. Why is truth so difficult to establish? After which once we imagine we’ve come to an understanding about what’s true, why can it feel daunting to defend it? If we aren’t truthful in our private lives, it is vitally unlikely that we are going to live the reality publicly.
Moderately than despair at this reality, that the worth of truth in our society is slipping, I take comfort in reading that even the earliest Christians needed prayer and support of their quest to know and to live the reality. Buying into lies will be tempting, but ultimately, it’s unfulfilling. We can have different challenges today in our quest looking for the reality, however the task itself is ancient. It nonetheless stays imperative for those striving to live a Christian life, one in service to God and our neighbors. But attempting to know the reality after which apply to our lives is crucial. As Jesus guarantees, “the reality will set you free.”
