Loving The Truth

[AccountDeleted]

Didn't know where to post this either since it could start a debate about loving vs arguing about the Truth but it really goes a lot deeper than just that...



[quote]
[b] Thursday, December 15, 2011[/b]

[url="http://www.ignatius.com/Products/RLP-P/a-retreat-for-lay-people.aspx?src=iinsight"][img]http://www.ignatius.com/Content/Site107/ProductImages/RLP-P.jpg[/img][/url]

[b] "Loving the truth isn't the same thing...[/b]

... as arguing about it; when we argue, we are so bent on getting the other person to see our point of view that we hardly mind whether it is true or not; we become advocates. Loving the truth isn't the same thing as preaching it or writing about it; when we preach it or write about it we are too much concerned with making it clear, with getting it across, to appreciate it in its own nature.

Loving the truth isn't even the same thing as studying it, or meditating about it; when we study it, we are out to master it; when we meditate about it, we are using it as a lever which will help us to get a move on with the business of our own souls. No, we have got to love the truth with a jealous, consuming love that can't rest satisfied until it has won the allegiance of every sane man and woman on God's earth. And we don't, very often, love it like that.

We are God's spoiled children; his truth drops into your lap like a ripe fruit—Open thy mouth wide, he says, and I will fill it. There is a sense, you know, in which the false thinkers of today love the truth better than Christians do. Their fancied truth is something they have earned by their own labours, and they appreciate it more than we appreciate the real truth which has dropped into our laps.
The truth of which we are speaking is not a set of abstract propositions, however august. We are to love the truth as it is in Christ; he himself is truth incarnate, and we call upon every human mind to surrender to his service—every human every human mind, and our own minds first; but it must be a real intellectual surrender.

We are to preach the gospel, not as a mere recipe which we have tried and found useful, not as a mere pattern of living which we have learned to admire, but as truth, which has a right to be told, which would still have to be told, even if no heaven beckoned from above, no hell yawned beneath us. If we really loved the truth, then perhaps it would bite deeper into our minds, become realized and operative, not a mere set of formulas, which we accept with a shrug of the shoulders. And then perhaps we should recapture that spirit of faith, in which the men who went before us moved the world.

— Monsignor Ronald Knox ([url="http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/authors/ronaldknox.asp"]Ignatius Insight author page[/url]), from the chapter, "The Spirit of Faith", from[i][url="http://www.ignatius.com/Products/RLP-P/a-retreat-for-lay-people.aspx?src=iinsight"] A Retreat for Lay People: Spiritual Guidance for Christian Living[/url][/i] (also available [url="http://www.ignatius.com/Products/RLP-E/a-retreat-for-lay-people.aspx?src=iinsight"]in electronic book format[/url]).

[url="http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2011/12/loving-the-truth-isnt-the-same-thing.html"]http://insightscoop....same-thing.html[/url]
[/quote]

[BarbTherese]

I read somewhere that Truth without Love can only be half the truth - and there is that great saying some subscribe to St. Augustine: "In essentials, unity, In non essentials, liberty. And in all things Love."
Truth is an Essential for God is Truth, Ultimate Truth, and He is Love and The Ultimate In Love - Truth will always lead to Unity, simply because it is Truth Who Is Love.
It is ok to debate on non essentials, providing one debates lovingly - drawing debate towards Truth and Ultimate Truth Who Is Love.

Edit: Some I have come across will weild the Truth of The Gospel, of Christ, like some sort of weapon to annihilate the other person, or at least humble them into the dust. I have thought that this is perhaps, possibly, more a desire for an 'ego win' (drawing on my own selfhood for inspiration) than a desire to communicate truth to the other. But then there are those who are so carried away with zeal that all they can 'see' is their desire to convert the other to truth, forgetting that the other is first our neighbour whom we are called to love (a primary Truth and command of The Gospel). And weilding truth like a weapon for any reason, 'ego win' or inflamed zeal - or any other motivation - will rarely convince the other. My doctor once told me in the long ago, that when I get off my high horse and get angry, the other is so intent on protecting themselves from my anger and zealous anger, that they dont hear a word I am saying.

Edited December 16, 2011 by BarbaraTherese

[AccountDeleted]

Truth is Love in the sense that Jesus was the Incarnation of Truth and the Incarnation of Love. If we know Love (captial L) we know Truth and vice versa. But both of these we can only know through Jesus.

[BarbTherese]

I have more or less just finished watching a documentary series on pay tv (Foxtel) on the history of Christianity. What really struck me about it all is to wonder and imagine where we and the world would be at this point in 2011 almost 2012 without The Incarnation and what followed with the death and resurrection of Jesus, Who is "The Way, The Truth and The Life", and the story that unfolded with Pentecost and after. Jesus is indeed Ultimate Truth and Ultimate Love incarnate - in human form. What is God really like so we can grasp that Truth - we need only look at Jesus and "take up your cross and follow Me".

[AccountDeleted]

Yes, I have caught a few of those episodes in the series. I can't imagine life without Jesus and yet there was a time when He was not in my consciousness as Lord, only as a historical figure.

I can only pray for a world where everyone comes to know Him as I have and to experience the great joy and peace of knowing we are loved by our Creator so much that He sent Jesus to live and die as a human that we might all know His Love personally.

[Lil Red]

my friend got me a copy for Christmas! I can't wait to read this book!

[BarbTherese]

[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1324033747' post='2352140']
Yes, I have caught a few of those episodes in the series. I can't imagine life without Jesus and yet there was a time when He was not in my consciousness as Lord, only as a historical figure.

I can only pray for a world where everyone comes to know Him as I have and to experience the great joy and peace of knowing we are loved by our Creator so much that He sent Jesus to live and die as a human that we might all know His Love personally.
[/quote]

Ament to all that, nunsense!

My problem as a teenager was accepting Jesus as an historical figure and something of a mini crisis of Faith I suspect. It eventually blew over when I read that a pagan historian at the time wrote just one sentence "Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem today". That was sufficient for me to place and accept Jesus in history after a couple of years struggle. A priest once commented to me "So a pagan brought you to Jesus?" - and I suspect that he did. Although my Faith was rich in childhood, it underwent a 'mini crisis' in my early teens. But that mini crisis once resolved did lead to a lifelong love and interest of reading books about the times of Jesus, the people and their culture and even the geography of the land.