Pope Benedict's Meditation on TRUTH

Pope Benedict’s Meditation on TRUTH
In pursuit of the truth – www.cinopsbegone.com – Sunday, May 3, 2009

Truth is not one of the great moral catchwords of our age; it does not stand high on the roster of virtues…. Considering the widespread social concerns of our epoch, there seems to be little left for the wearisome and boring question of truth.

Indeed, there some who suspect that it serves us rather as a way of bypassing pressing human problems: that it is far from offering an answer to these problems…. But what shall we say, then, about truth? Where is it actually to be found? What does it mean? I would like to attempt an answer to this question by relating a brief episode from the life of Pater Rupert Mayer.

Rupert Mayer became acquainted with Hitler as early as 1919 when the latter was discussion leader at a Communist meeting. At that early period, when Hitler was not recognized as the future dictator, it could still seem on the whole likely that, despite some annoying traits, he could become an ally in the struggle against the threat of Marxism. Hitler himself had hinted at this….

Father Rupert, who was not an intellectual, but a simple priest, recognized, as it were, the mask of Antichrist in something that we might well have overlooked. He realized from the beginning that Hitler constantly exaggerated and had no scruples about lying. One who does not respect the truth cannot construct anything worth while. If truth is not held in honor then freedom, justice, and love cannot flourish. Truth, which I mean the simple, humble, patient truth of daily life, is the foundation of all the other virtues.

I am not speaking here about truth in matters of great importance, such as God, the world, and human beings, but about truth in those matters of small importance that impinge on our daily lives – but the two are not to be separated. And one who has no qualms about treading ruthlessly on the truth in small matters cannot claim to be a guarantor of the truth in great matters.

Let us now apply this to the present. What is our attitude toward truth? How does each of us relate to truth day after day? Do I always speak the truth? Have I the courage to adhere to it even when it is uncomfortable, and when it disturbs any peace, when it leads to irritation or anger?

For we cannot deny that truth is often shameful. Truth is disagreeable and can the cause of much unpleasantness. Truth so often interferes with what we deem useful or necessary and is so easily pushed aside. One seems to lose so little thereby and to gain so much. But if we act and speak in such a way – how can we really ever trust one another?

Where truth is not present, the foundation of society is ripped from under us. In fact, this apparently very useless virtue is, in reality, the fundamental virtue of all society.
G.H.K. The above from Ratzinger’s “Co-Workers of the Truth,” May 3rd meditation.