New Truth

Truth is eternal. It does not change. Nevertheless, we are only human, and truth comes at us only as quickly as we are able to embrace it. Sometimes, violent change is necessary to make us fully grasp what should otherwise be a straightforward lesson.

In recent weeks, I have been given the gift of learning two essential truths, embracing in that area of my heart that moves beyond the intellect. In other words, I've long understood and believed these things, but this new level of knowledge is a deeper one... in the words of George Weigel, I'm "thinking with my heart, and feeling with my intellect."

First Truth: No matter what you give this world, it isn't good enough. You can give everything you have, and someone will still find fault with you. It's a fallen place. I understand now a little part of the agony of Christ, who gave the world everything it needed, and still found himself nailed up on a tree. He even cured diseases and raised the dead, only to be murdered for it. Aside from my own travails, two of the best people I know in the world are suffering terribly, in a way that would only reinforce the common atheist's stance on suffering disproving a loving God... yet...

Second Truth: Suffering is temporary, and character-forming, and ultimately good. A thousand years of suffering is only a brief uncomfortable moment in the face of an eternity of light. Another angle to this truth can be gleaned from the words of Evelyn Waugh, writing to George Orwell in response to his bleak novel "1984": "the book failed to make my flesh creep as you intended... men who have loved a crucified God never need think of torture as all-powerful." (For more of this good wisdom, read George Weigel's "Letters to a Young Catholic.")

So I move through my own difficulties, and endure sight of those I love suffering, all with a deep sense of hope and renewal. Every cross will bloom into a garden, every tear of sorrow will be transformed into shouts of joy. If this is not true, then life is not worth living. If it is true, then our destinies lie beyond the wildest joys we have ever known.