Resolve to seek the highest truth: Mankind has a predilection for feeling superior. We have weaponised our talents to dominate other species and to plunder the earth. Moreover we have conceptualised this behaviour as being mandated by God and we feel quite self-righteous about it. I sometimes think that certain people have redefined the meaning of God to suit the image of man. This may explain why we have been over so many millennia, and continue to be, such a tormented species.
The message of Christ is something else altogether. Political leaders in western cultures should remember that our laws and constitutions are based on our shared Christian heritage. They should uphold Christian values, family values, community values. They should always speak the truth, no matter what.
The political class should note that they also are bound by Christian axioms: to honour God, to be honest and forthright, not to steal, not to cheat, not to lie, not to covet, not to cause harm, and not to worship false gods. They should not indulge in virtue signalling. Politicians are accountable to God and country for what they allow to happen under their watch.
We should contemplate the reality that we will and do suffer the consequences of our ill-conceived choices. This, I believe, is the way for Christians. As Christ demonstrates, the Christian path is one that fearlessly faces adversity and where redemption comes through suffering. It is not a path for the faint hearted.
The different peoples, following the different religions, were not created by multiple gods. There is clearly a universal principality to which all peoples are beholden. We should focus on that which unites us and not that which divides us. We should be at peace with what other cultures believe to be true.
All life is sacred, therefore living is a spiritual journey. This is a fundamental principal and we do need to live in a way that reflects this. As we look to the future with hope for a better life situation, a better world, we should particularly focus on truth. In John 8: 31-32 we are told that knowing the truth shall make us free.
The truth I speak of is the truth about creation, the reality we live in. A simple example of this is that if one is a player in a football game, one needs to know the truth about the game of football, of the rules of the game and of what success or failure means in that context. If one does not know this reality about the game and makes up the rules as one goes along, or plays by the rules of another game, one’s endeavours will surely end in misery and grief.
Reality has meaning and purpose. We should not take anything at face value, always ask yourself what is really going on below the surface, looking at the bigger picture helps. Each and every one of us is well able to know what is true without the aid of science.
Being a truth-seeker is where the journey starts. The journey is one from separateness and isolation, to the unity that we once were. We know this. We crave unity. A man and a woman unite in marriage, adults and children become as one in a family, a thousand people become as one in a community, a hundred thousand people become as one in a town, and ten million people become as one in a nation. Creation and life are organised in ever-growing hierarchies and overlapping multiplicities of unities, as a reflection of the unity of all creation. Eight billion people become as one in the sisterhood and brotherhood of mankind on earth.
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”. Mathew 18: 20 defines the building block with which the ever increasing edifice of togetherness is built. Digital technology fragments unity. I very much fear that as we continue to rip apart all that is good and true in our societies, the inevitable corrective consequences may be apocalyptic for humanity, not so for the earth.
Removing human contact from processes, transactions and day to day tasks is a most worrying development. We are social biological beings and inextricably intertwined with all other biological beings and the earth’s ecosystems. We should not shy away from these interactions. This total inter-dependency is the road to realising the truth of the unity of all creation. Machines mediating human interactions is a roadmap to a dystopian future.
Many things are important in the life of a human being. Some matters are, more or less, equal in importance and some other matters are more important than others. When we are considering how to conduct our life and making choices or decisions, it is useful to see the options along a hierarchy of Christian values. The highest value is the value of truth and goodness. We can juggle the subsidiary values as long as we do not compromise on that which is highest. This ensures the best possible outcomes.
We should attune ourselves to the highest good, to the highest truth and resolve to seek out these principalities in all their forms and shapes. Everything on earth is a symbol for an aspect of creation with meaning and purpose, always go deeper, go wider, “be a force for good and may this be the adventure of your life”.
A shorter version of this article was published in The Senior Times of The Times of Malta in March 2023 “Let truth be the adventure of your life”
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