The Catholic Current XX
[0] Do you remember that scene from the movie A Few Good Men?
[1] The courtroom scene at the end, Tom Cruise is confronting Jack Nicholson, and Tom Cruise says, I want the truth!
[2] And Jack Nicholson says, you can't handle the truth!
[3] What happens if you said to someone, I want the truth, and he says, there is no truth?
[4] You might look around and say, oh, I didn't know I was at a university.
[5] But, what if...
[6] You said, I want the truth.
[7] The person said, yeah, we have the truth, but we got something better.
[8] What would you say?
[9] What would you do?
[10] Let's take a closer look.
[11] Hi, I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTague, host every day at The Catholic Current via the Station of the Cross Catholic Media Network, and we are glad that you are here today on our YouTube channel at iCatholic Radio.
[12] I have a story to tell you.
[13] When I was a new priest and a new full -time faculty member at a university, I discovered in a hurry that there's definitely a hierarchy at a university.
[14] And when you don't have tenure and you're the new guy, you have to show your commitment to community service.
[15] Community service, does that mean, you know, administering the sacraments, preaching with the gospel?
[16] being with people in crisis on campus.
[17] No, because that's priestly ministry.
[18] I was told that takes place in the private sphere.
[19] Community service is public, like serving on the committees that your senior colleagues don't want to be on.
[20] So I found myself on the committee to rewrite the mission statement of the university.
[21] The one they had was old.
[22] It was beyond verbose.
[23] It was 17 pages, horrible.
[24] So I got the draft that they were working on.
[25] I read through and I said, hey, I noticed that the word diversity is mentioned three times.
[26] And friends, this was over 25 years ago that this was taking place.
[27] And diversity wasn't the sacred magic word that it is now, but the roots were there even back then.
[28] I noticed that the word diversity is there three times, I said, and it seems in context to have a different meaning each of the three times it's used.
[29] And people kind of fidgeted in their seat a little bit.
[30] And then I said, But I noticed that the word truth isn't mentioned at all.
[31] Oh, my goodness.
[32] The lights flicker.
[33] The temperature dropped about 15, 20 degrees.
[34] And people started to look at each other nervously and whisper to each other.
[35] Who's going to tell him?
[36] You tell him.
[37] I don't want to tell him.
[38] No, no. You tell him.
[39] You tell him.
[40] And then so someone looked at me and talked to me very, very slowly as if I were a mentally challenged child and said, Father, truth.
[41] is divisive.
[42] Owie hot.
[43] No, so we don't say the T word in this family, okay?
[44] It was not what I expected.
[45] And I thought for a moment and then I looked out the window and I said, hey, I'm looking at the brand new library outside, dedicated with the last year, cost about eight figures to put up.
[46] And I see in the archway over the entrance carved in stone, Are these words from our Lord and Savior?
[47] It says, the truth will set you free.
[48] Now, I don't know if you're planning to sue the contractor who put that up there against your wishes.
[49] Obviously, that's something that you would have paid for based on what you said.
[50] So tell you what, I'll go to Home Depot and I'll get a little spackle and I'll fill that in for you.
[51] And lots of luck with that, you know, taking the contractor to court.
[52] And then surprise, I wasn't on the committee anymore.
[53] As a Catholic, as a priest, as a Jesuit, and as an academic, as a scholar, I fought my battles for truth and about truth.
[54] Now, it's very common in academia, in higher academia in particular, to talk about there is no truth.
[55] And sometimes they'll say, oh, there is no truth with a capital T. Or they'll just say, well, nobody has a monopoly on truth.
[56] But I don't know anyone who said he had a monopoly on truth.
[57] And I certainly didn't say it.
[58] So why are you saying that to me?
[59] And the conversation usually ends shortly after that.
[60] But tell you what, the next time you're at a party and there's some academics there and there's the guy in the tweed jacket leaning back with his arm on the mantelpiece.
[61] He's got a drink in his hand and he's talking about there is no. no truth.
[62] Reality is a social construct.
[63] No one really knows anything for really, really, really real.
[64] Here's what you do.
[65] Go up to him and whisper in his ear, dude, your fly is open.
[66] If he looks down, he's a fraud.
[67] He's a fraud.
[68] No one can consistently and meaningfully live in a world where there is, in fact, no truth.
[69] In fact, There is no truth is a nonsensical statement, but that's not what I'm concerned about right now.
[70] What I'm concerned about now is a recognition, especially among Christians, and in particular, that group of Christians who are part of the people who should really know better club, who admit, kind of on the down low, that there's truth, but we've got bigger fish to fry.
[71] We've got more important things to do than to serve the truth.
[72] Case in point, when I was studying theology many years ago in Europe, I was in a seminar on a class on ecclesiology.
[73] It's theology of the nature of the church.
[74] And I'd made a presentation and I ended with a quote from the novelist Walker Percy.
[75] It was from an interview he gave towards the end of his life.
[76] He was an elderly man. And someone asked him, well, why are you still a Catholic after all these years?
[77] And he answered, well, what else is there?
[78] Well, that did not make Sister happy.
[79] And she grabbed me by the ear and pulled me out of the classroom and said, Hans at the table.
[80] He's from Germany.
[81] And I said, yeah, even if he didn't tell me Hans, I think the way he spoke English kind of clued me in.
[82] He was German.
[83] And he's Lutheran.
[84] And I said, yes, I know.
[85] How do you think what you said made him feel?
[86] I said, I don't know.
[87] He hasn't told me. But you're implying that Catholicism is true.
[88] Well, I'm going to more than imply it.
[89] Well, how do you think that makes him feel?
[90] I said, I don't know.
[91] If he's concerned about truth, then I think he'll be just fine.
[92] That was not what Sister was looking for.
[93] And I went on to say, which Sister really didn't want to hear, was that I shouldn't be responsible for his emotional bills if he can't handle the truth.
[94] A little bit later, studying theology in London at a seminar.
[95] Now, British higher ed seminars are very, they're very genteel affairs.
[96] People set up right and they're exceedingly polite.
[97] But you see, I learned to do my philosophy.
[98] the tutelage of Dr. Paul Weiss, and it was Socratic, and it was full contact verbal wrestling, not for ego, but for truth.
[99] And I brought that spirit to this very polite British academic circle.
[100] And I was having a really heated clash with the only other American in the room, a young woman.
[101] I won't talk about what we clashed about because...
[102] We could get kicked off of YouTube and nobody needs that.
[103] So, but it got rather heated.
[104] And eventually the professor intervened and said, well, you know, by the way, this is a professor of moral theology.
[105] He says, well, you know, these are really difficult questions.
[106] And who's to say what's right and what's wrong?
[107] He said, well, why are you cashing our check?
[108] And I said, I'm to say.
[109] Because I'm a being of reason and a recipient of grace and a candidate for ordination and a vow religious.
[110] And someday I'm going to have to walk into a classroom or a confessional and a pulpit.
[111] And I want to be able to offer God's people something other than a shrug of the shoulders.
[112] So I'm going to stake out my territory and say, if I'm right, here's where I'm right.
[113] And if I'm wrong, here's where I'm wrong.
[114] And even if I am wrong, I at least want to make it.
[115] effort that is worthy of a refutation.
[116] So I don't know about you, professor, but I'm not ready to give up on the pursuit of truth just yet.
[117] And he looked down at his watch and said, oh, is it time for tea already?
[118] And he left.
[119] I wanted to shout after him, hey, what did you say you do for a living?
[120] Teach moral theology?
[121] But my guardian angel put a wing over my mouth, so I didn't say that.
[122] That's probably good.
[123] My point is this.
[124] The truth really will set us free.
[125] We can't have meaningful anything.
[126] if we absolutely give up on truth.
[127] But that's nonsense.
[128] That's kind of a squared circle.
[129] So we're going to put that aside.
[130] But when we have this notion of, well, sure, there's truth, but we've got more important things to do.
[131] And somehow that's a mistake.
[132] That is a mistake.
[133] So what Christians need to do again...
[134] is read the first chapter of the Gospel of John, read John's epistles, read his book of Revelation, read nice chunks of Aquinas and Augustine, and what you'll see is that truth cannot be separated from love, from charity, and truth and love cannot be separated from Christ.
[135] So we don't do anyone any great service when we hide from people the truth that will set them free, even if that truth at least first is hard.
[136] And yes, we can accommodate and begin to say things in a way that might make it easier for a particular audience to hear, but we do owe them.
[137] the truth.
[138] So how do we go about doing that?
[139] Well, this is where some people rush to the front and grab the mic and say, we've got to take the pastoral approach, which means the truth can sit in the back and shut up.
[140] And that's not what the pastoral approach is.
[141] The pastoral approach is to tell the fullness of truth with clarity and charity, and then offer the helps of nature and grace to help people see the truth and understand it and accept it and live it.
[142] And if real accompaniment means anything, I know that's what the cool kids talk about, a lot of accompaniment, but it has to be, I'm going to tell you the truth, the truth God told me to tell you, and then I'm going to stay with you and help you to live it.
[143] And that's hard for sinners like me and like you to do.
[144] Sin weakens our heart, weakens our will.
[145] It dims the light of our intellect.
[146] We have to struggle for the truth.
[147] We're not completely in the dark.
[148] We're not completely helpless.
[149] And we have the revelation that Christ entrusted to the one church he founded.
[150] Friends, I don't understand Christians who call themselves Christians but ignore or silence or hide what the Christ of God the only begotten Son, the second person of the Trinity, the Logos, the eternal word of the Father, has spoken to his creation.
[151] That's not charity.
[152] It's not pastoral.
[153] It's not accompaniment.
[154] It's not anything good.
[155] So here's my advice to you.
[156] Don't be afraid of standing up for the truth.
[157] Sometimes...
[158] We need the gift of a supernatural prudence to learn to say the right words the right way and the right time.
[159] But we owe our Lord our testimony to the truth because the truth is Him.
[160] And to the people we meet, people made in the image and likeness of God like us, people endowed with immortal souls like us, we have an obligation to help them to know the truth and love the truth.
[161] Do the truth.
[162] So let's not walk away and let's not be cowed when someone says, we don't talk about truth here, because that's not what Christians say.
[163] I'm Jesuit Fr.
[164] Robert McTague, your host here every day of The Catholic Current.
[165] Thank you for being here with us.
[166] You can find new content on our iCatholic Radio YouTube channel on Mondays and Wednesdays.
[167] Please hit like and subscribe.
[168] Go in peace, and please do pray for me, for I am a sinner.