Speaking the truth
Many of us grew up with the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” In that story, a child finally speaks the truth that no one else dares. Sometimes the truth is staring us in the face and we still cannot speak it, we are so invested in our version, or work, or tradition. Something new comes to light but it is easier to not hear. Then the compelling Stephen Hawking comes along and challenges our version, our work and our tradition, and we wonder.
It is intriguing that Hawking was a part of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, his work was so respected. The academy goes back eight decades, proving that at one point, religion decided it needed to be informed by science. I love the idea that one truth can speak to another, from differing spectrums and disciplines; that by listening, we can comprehend more. There does not need to be just one way of seeing.
As the story of the passion unfolds, we are invited into the question of truth. Pilate asks Jesus outright, “What is truth?” The idea that Jesus is “The Truth” is not what Pilate is looking for. He wants answers, evidence, clarity about who Jesus is and who God is, and what this excitement is all about. Pilate asks the questions we all ask. And Jesus answers not with words but with actions, stories, metaphors. His truth unfolds in human experience.
History has a way of remembering those who offer their version of truth. Science will be proven or not, leadership will leave a legacy, good or bad, but the lasting truths of our lives are the things we have lived. Sometimes it takes a while before competing stories are rectified. It took the Catholic church more than 350 years (1992), after condemning and persecuting Galileo, to admit that the earth moves around the sun. Perhaps we learned something about “infallible truth” by that example. The challenge of thinking in a broader way as we strive to understand the great truths, the meaning of life, the reason for being and loving and relating are extremely important. Science has a place, as does the story of humanity. Being connected to the past through story and to the future though imagination is a part of our truth as people of faith.
As the story of the trial, the crucifixion and resurrection come into focus again, may we be open to the more complex truths, and not fear naming them as part of our unfolding understanding. The smartest man alive in our time recently died, yet till the end his desire was to understand more. Surely we as people of faith cannot believe that we have it all figured out and nailed down. The ongoing conversation, as one perspective informs another, is an excellent direction in a faith for today.