What is Truth?
By Pope Benedict XVI, in his book, Co-Workers of the Truth- Feb. 27th meditation.
Let us ask the question Pilate asked: What is truth? - but not as Pilate asked it.
Herman Dietzfelbinger has pointed out that what is most depressing about Pilate's question is the fact that it is really not a question, but an answer. To him who claims to be the Truth.
Pilate says in effect: "Let's be done with all this talk . After all what is truth? We'll do better to keep to concrete issues." This is the form in which Pilate's question is most frequently asked today. But now it must be addressed in earnest.
How does it happen that to grow in truth means to grow in goodness; that truth is not just good; it is the good par excellence? How does it happen that it has value in itself and has no need to justify itself by its ends?
That can be the case only if the value of the truth resides in itself, it exists in itself and has more being than all others; it is itself the foundation on which I stand.
If we ponder carefully the nature of truth, we end by pondering the concept of God. In the long run, it impossible for us to comprehend the nature and value of the truth, on which depends, in turn, the value of mankind and of the world, unless we learn to see therein the nature and value of the living God.
That is why respect for truth is ultimately inseparable from what we call worship. Truth and cult are inseparably united - one cannot exist without the other, however often history may have separated them.
The freedom for truth and the freedom of truth ultimately cannot exist without recognition and reverence for the divine. Freedom and utilitarianism can be grounded and can endure only when there is something over and above that which derives from the possession and property of mankind, where there is the highest ownership and inalienable claim of the Godhead.
Mankind's growing in truth is, at the same time, a part of the world's growing in truth; and when human being grow in truth, they grow in goodness, and when they do, the world grows in goodness wherever they are. [ George H. Kubeck, cinops be gone, Friday, March 1, 2013]
That is why respect for truth is ultimately inseparable from what we call worship. Truth and cult are inseparably united - one cannot exist without the other, however often history may have separated them.
The freedom for truth and the freedom of truth ultimately cannot exist without recognition and reverence for the divine. Freedom and utilitarianism can be grounded and can endure only when there is something over and above that which derives from the possession and property of mankind, where there is the highest ownership and inalienable claim of the Godhead.
Mankind's growing in truth is, at the same time, a part of the world's growing in truth; and when human being grow in truth, they grow in goodness, and when they do, the world grows in goodness wherever they are. [ George H. Kubeck, cinops be gone, Friday, March 1, 2013]
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