Third Sunday of Easter
Today's Mass Readings
Earlier this week, I received a surprise from an unlikely source. I attended a discussion group with the dean of a well-known business school. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the dean’s new book, which was a study on how successful business leaders think. The surprise was the dean’s thesis that successful decision making is based on an understanding that there is no “objective truth.” His position was that we need to stop thinking in terms of something being true or untrue, and start thinking in terms of flexible models that are not tied to antiquated notions of truth. This position was formed as a result of his research and interviews with numerous industry leaders. From my perspective, the research did not support a frame work for successful decision making; instead, if “successful” business leaders are denying the existence of objective truth, we may have found part of the explanation for our current economic crisis. My experience from earlier this week was still on my mind as I read today’s readings, which identify God as the source of all truth and describe how truth became physically present in the world through Christ. This truth forms the basis for how we approach and interact with the world. The alternative is a world in which we are guided by our ability to rationalize a particular outcome or course of conduct.
We most certainly all know someone who has adopted an approach to life that contains no anchor of objective truth. It has been my experience that those that adopt this approach to life have no peace. Life based on rationalization and without objective truth becomes a quest for material wealth or prestige, a life of perpetual dissatisfaction. Alternatively, for those who follow Christ, life is ideally spent trying to gain a better understanding of the truth set forth in the Gospel by applying them to our daily experiences. We have likely each experienced that the more we focus on applying this truth in our daily lives, the more peace we obtain.
As I review today’s readings, I am struck by the stated connection between ignorance and suffering on one hand and peace and truth on the other. The first reading provides that in condemning Christ, mankind acted out of ignorance resulting in Christ’s suffering. In the second reading, keeping God’s commandments in associated with truth. Most poignantly, in the today’s Gospel reading, Christ’s greets the disciples with a statement of peace and asks them “Why are you troubled?” (Lk 24:38) To put them at ease, Christ directs them to look at his hands and feet – to know peace through the fact that he has risen. Just as the disciples in today’s Gospel reading found peace, we also have an opportunity to achieve that same peace by knowing Jesus who is “. . . the way, and the truth, and the life. . .” (Jn 14:6)
Although, as I mentioned earlier, I did not agree with the dean’s notion of the absence of objective truth, I did take away a cautionary note from the discussion and today’s readings. There is a danger that when we deal will positions relating to objective truth, we can become arrogant. A danger that somehow we can, with absolute certainty, know God’s mind on all matters. Although there are many examples of situations where we can understand truth, we cannot know God’s mind in all respects. For this to be possible, we would need to have the same omniscient capacity as God, and that is not a capacity that any of us have been given. However, the fact that we are unable to completely understand truth in all respects is not a valid reason to take the position that it does not exist or that it is not worth trying to understand. To the contrary, we are charged with seeking truth in all that we do, but that process must always be guided by an equal measure of humility.
- John Sperino