The modern emphasis on freedom can sometimes sideline the importance of shared truth and lead to fragmented, individualistic worldviews. Drawing on Jesus' words from the Gospel (John 8:31-42Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, "If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples.You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."They answered him, "We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, 'You will be made free?'"Jesus answered them, "Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin.A bondservant doesn't live in the house forever. A son remains forever.If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.I know that you are Abraham's seed, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you.I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father."They answered him, "Our father is Abraham." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham didn't do this.You do the works of your father." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God."Therefore Jesus said to them, "If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven't come of myself, but he sent me.), particularly "The truth will set you free," the preaching highlights that authentic freedom is inseparable from a commitment to truth.
The readings for Wednesday of the fifth week of Lent.
You know, you don't have to watch much television or read too many newspapers to hear about freedom today. We talk about that a whole lot in the United States. We talk about freedom from taxes, freedom from vaccinations, freedom for regulation. and of course, uh freedom of speech, the freedom to save whatever we think or whatever we believe. And these are important civic virtues as well as Christian virtues.
Jesus makes it clear in the gospel today how important freedom is, but he also reminds us that in some ways, our emphasis on freedom has made truth a casualty. We sometimes lose sight of the truth and we begin to slip away from it and choose an individual freedom that allows each one of us to live in our own worlds rather to live in a world of shared truth, and Jesus makes it clear that truth and freedom cannot be separated. They have to go together.
Jesus says, "I am the truth and the truth will set you free," and obviously the people, his opponents who were listening to him in this gospel passage today didn't really cotton to that idea. They weren't too too keen on seeing him as the truth and seeing him as the one who will make them free.
We need to ask ourselves some basic questions about truth, like what is truth? How do I arrive at truth and how do I as an individual and a member of society speak truth and act truthfully? These are important questions for us today. I feel that the future of our society depends on us being able to approach truth together and arrive at one understanding of how the world is and what that requires of us.
I belong to a religious community called the Dominicans, and our immodest motto is "truth" or veritas. Sometimes people tease us about that as though we think we have all the truth. Well, we don't, of course. God is truth and we will only arrive at the fullness of that gradually. But our motto does mean that we have to continue to pursue truth, that we have to accept the world as it is, even when that's painful or inconvenient for us.
I suggest that we try to take these words of Jesus about the truth setting us free seriously, and first of all confess at least in our hearts our own untruthfulness; and secondly, to commit ourselves to seek truth everywhere, to be as faithful about that as possible, even when it makes us uncomfortable. When we do that, when we are able to commit ourselves to truth, we are not only on the path to real freedom, but we are also doing an act of justice and charity with those with whom we live. and of course, to the extent that we achieve that truth, that word of Jesus, that life of Jesus, we will also find real and authentic freedom.
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Slav Romanov at Unsplash
