Truth and Love – August 24th, 2019
Truth does not change. Truth is one just as God is one, for truth is a person: Jesus Christ. We are living stones that constitute the church, which is the body of Jesus Christ, He who is the truth. When we start building the Church with something other than the truth, as something other than ourselves founded in truth and holiness, then the church clearly becomes something other than the Truth. The Church is the Pillar and Foundation of that Truth, so it must embody that Truth in both word and deed; in both practice and praxis of faith; in both her prayers and her sacraments; in both beauty and holiness; in both purity and chastity of mind and body.
Truth is rigid and unchanging, without deformity of word or character. Yet, the means by which truth is conveyed, taught, expressed and known, is through the unending and unquenchable fire of God’s love. It is in this crucible of love, of which we are all partakers and participants of, that the coldness of this world melts away; the chaff of the wheat is burned to naught; the wax is softened and we are molded to the truth like potters clay. It is in love that truth is revealed, that truth takes shape in us, and that truth is known; for, God is love.
We are conformed to the Truth, molded in love. Once truth has taken shape within us, and once we have become molded to it become and an incarnation of Truth, it is by the crucibles of this world that we are tried, tested, formed, and refined. The potter’s clay is hardened into its new shape. Like in a refiner’s fire we are purified. We shall all become vessels of Truth, those who allow themselves to be subject to the fires of God’s love.
Everyone loves Truth when it is revealed about the world around them, but no one loves Truth when it is revealed about themselves. Likewise, everyone wants love to be given to them, but because love requires sacrifice on both sides, no one wants to give it in return. So, in this understanding, conformity to the truth requires sacrifice, which is perhaps why so many work so hard to make concessions with the truth, so that they may conform the truth to themselves instead. In the end, this is not love, but a hatred of the Truth, a hatred of Christ, for He is the Truth.
