“If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true. But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true. You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.
I have heard that many of those who trashed the nation's Capitol on January 6, didn't vote on November 3. I wonder how many attend a church or synagogue.
How do we explain to them that they have lost touch with the truth? Or perhaps, they never knew the truth.
I have met some people -- and lived for a while with one individual -- who do not tell the truth because they do not know Him. We might call them liars but we should understand their deceptions are not entirely intentional. They tell falsehoods because they do not know there is such a thing as truth.
"Truth," to them, is whatever they want to believe. Or what they want you to believe. Or what they wish were true. Or what important people tell them. Might makes right in their universe.
Of course, storming the Capitol was ludicrous by any standards. They would have to believe in X-men, or the Tooth Fairy, or the Rapture to expect their action would unseat the government and reinstall Mr. Trump as the president.
But that seems to be what happened! January 6, conspiracy theories, QAnon: this is what happens when you lose faith in the Truth.
But how do we explain it to them? Education is not the answer. Nor will reasonable arguments. Don't waste your breath.
Our only hope is to witness the truth, ala Saint John's Gospel. Jesus invited some of the Baptist's disciples to "Come and see" where he lived. Living with him and witnessing the Man closely, they became witnesses.
But they could not simply say, describe, or define what Jesus was about. They had to be new creatures, transformed by his Holy Spirit, so that their presence -- their essence or their being -- would invite others to come and see and be transformed.
Their conversion to Christ, and the conversion Christians have known since that time, is more remarkable, wonderful, and blessed than the transmogrification of comic book superheroes. The latter is just inane; our reality is beautiful.
And yet we are ordinary people. We eat, drink, breathe, and die just as women and men have lived and died for the past million years.
We are different because we love the Truth. We know the Truth in a manner of speaking, though we have no claim upon it. Rather, we are claimed by the truth and know the truth as our pleasure and privilege.
We're often humiliated by the truth. We admit we're wrong when it becomes obvious. We can be misled and mistaken and bamboozled like other humans. But discovering our mistake, error, or sin we turn back to the Lord. If we're embarrassed or ashamed by the incident, we learn to shake it off.
Many good people voted for Mr. Trump and now realize their mistake. Narcissists do that to people. I've seen them divide families and churches; and now a nation. But those who love the Truth repent and turn back to the Lord. It's hard only for those who make it hard.
As Easter approaches we hear again Jesus's prayer for us:
I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.
We should pray for Mr. Trump and his followers. God in his mercy gives them time and ample opportunity to know, love, and worship the truth. Perhaps our seeing might heal their blindness.
We should pray for our nation also. American Catholics have long prayed that the United States be consecrated to the Immaculate Conception. We'll add to that prayer a Consecration in Truth.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.