becoming flame

Crucifying the truth

We are too much like Pilate. We are always asking, “What is truth?” and then crucifying the truth that stands before our eyes.

— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, Sincerity

I’m reading through Proverbs and using, for the first time, Eugene Peterson’s translation called The Message. Bible reading has been a regular part of my life for many years. And, yes, it often becomes stale – I stop paying attention. When I notice that happening, I’ll often try a new translation: thus, I’m reading The Message now.

Scripture is part of the ‘truth that stands before our eyes.’ Paying attention to it helps open our eyes to truth still hidden from us, or that we are hiding from ourselves. The book of Proverbs is particularly challenging in that regard – read it and it will make you squirm.

This passage from Chapter 8 fits well with Thomas Merton’s challenge to us. Lady Wisdom tells us we will recognize the truth if we have “truth-ready minds”.

Don’t miss a word of this—I’m telling you how to live well, I’m telling you how to live at your best. My mouth chews and savors and relishes truth— I can’t stand the taste of evil! You’ll only hear true and right words from my mouth; not one syllable will be twisted or skewed. You’ll recognize this as true—you with open minds; truth-ready minds will see it at once.

Peterson, Eugene H.. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language . The Navigators. Kindle Edition.

Father in heaven, may our minds and hearts be open to the truth you ‘stand before our eyes’ every hour of every day. Where would we be without your constant, faithful, truthful presence in our world?

Tags Eugene Peterson, No Man is an Island, open mind, Proverbs, sincerity, The Message, Thomas Merton, truth telling, wisdom

Other Writings

Telling the truth

We make ourselves real by telling the truth. Man can hardly forget that he needs to know the truth, for the instinct to know is too strong in us to be destroyed. But he can forget how badly he also needs to tell the truth.

— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, Sincerity

My friends, if we give up on truth in these trying times for truth, we give up on life itself, and on the Giver of Life, who is the Spirit of Truth. Let us continue to seek and speak the truth, as best we can, as faithfully as we can, as long as we can, with as much love as we can.

May God help us. Amen.

Tags don't give up, No Man is an Island, sincerity, Thomas Merton, truth telling

Current Events Scripture truth

What is truth?

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

The Gospel of John, 18:38

Is truth a light in the dark
or is it the dark itself?

Is it pain
or a drug-mask that covers pain?

If it’s a lone voice
on a noisy street corner
is it worth hearing,
stopping for?

If we jeer at it
does that make it less true?

What if most of us jeer?

Jesus said:
For this purpose I was born
and for this purpose I have come into the world –
to bear witness to the truth.

This he said facing crucifixion.
Truth was a big deal to Jesus.

What is truth,
to you,
to me,
to all of us?

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash

Tags darkness, Gospel of John, Jesus, light, Pontius Pilate, what is truth

love Poetry

Our lifelong fight

Young man wearing hat that says Love Your Neighbor.

Our lifelong fight as a Christian is to get off the natural level and on the supernatural. Our lives must be a pure act of love, repeated many times over.

Day, Dorothy. The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus (Plough Spiritual Guides: Backpack Classics) (p. 58). Plough Publishing House. Kindle Edition.

Before we dismiss,
yes, dismiss,
Dorothy Day altogether,
along with Mother Teresa,
and Francis of Assisi,
and the Father
and the Son
and the Holy Spirit
for being unrealistic,
idealistic,
hearts-on-sleeves-heads-in-clouds,
big talkers
of inconvenient truths that,
if we don’t immediately,
knee-jerkedly,
dismiss,
we might feel just a tidge
of something we don’t like
about ourselves,
something like guilt, maybe,
for how cold
and self-serving
and small
we really are;

before we do that,
could we allow that tidge
of living feeling
bring to life
within our cold, small selves,
something, maybe, like
awareness
and acceptance
of who we are
and what our lives are like
apart from the love,
the kind of love,
these talkers talk about?