Posted by The WORD in Other Words by Fr Felix Ferrer SVD (Philippines)
Wednesday Week 6 Easter
Truth has become a cheap commodity. But the real truth hurts!
As Fr. Anthony de Melo narrated in his famous book Song of the Birds, there was this special store that was selling truth. On top of the store was written, “Truth for Sale!”
A tourist happened to pass by, and being curious of what kinds of truth were being sold, she approached the store and asked the sales lady what truth was available.
The saleslady said, “Well, name it and you have it. There is the half-baked truth, the hypocrisy, the pretenses and the outright lie. All of these are categorized as ‘False Truths.’”
“What I need is the real one,” the tourist answered back.
“That one comes with an expensive price. You may need your life to pay for it!”
The Gospel passage of today underlines the coming of the Spirit of truth: “But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” Yes, there were many things that the Lord told his disciples. And they can easily be misunderstood and misinterpreted. In fact, there are more than 4,000 denominations claiming to present the truth about Jesus Christ.
I think that this reality causes scandal to other faiths. We cannot even agree to disagree. The good news, however, is that many denominations are already talking to one another, trying to respect each other’s convictions. It is in this kind of development when the saying “the truth will set us free” may be actualized. May we be true to ourselves, to others and to God!
