I subscribe to Origins, which is the official document service of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It's a good way to keep track of what's going on in the Church here and abroad. Today I was reading a piece by Archbishop Castro on peacemaking, and in the course of describing the four "legs" of the "table of peacekeeping" he mentioned "truth," and reminded me of the meaning of this particular form of the word in Greek, the language of the Scriptures. "Truth" in Greek is "Alētheia": and that word has a specific connotation. Alētheia is the truth that cannot be hidden, that keeps coming to the surface like a body that won't stay conveniently buried, a truth that keeps breaking into history again and again, because God's power is behind it. The Easter greeting, "Christ is risen! He is truly risen! (Greek: Christos anesti! Alithos anesti!" preserves this notion of the resurrection as a truth that cannot be hidden, cannot be ignored, because it keeps breaking into our lives by the mercy of the risen Jesus.
"Your Word is truth;" ο λογος ο σος αληθεια εστιν. ( John 17:17)
The Greek really has an emphasis not caught by the English translation: The Word which is Yours is Truth (of the kind that keeps breaking in, and that cannot be hidden.)
The Word, is of course the other name for the Son... who is Truth: "I am the way and the truth and the life" (Ego sum via et veritas et vita.) He keeps rising, leaping into people's lives, changing hearts, healing wounds, refusing to stay conveniently out of the world's way. Thank God!
In contrast, of course, the world keeps trying to keep Christ buried. A small case: I was reading the newspaper a few weeks ago, which referred to the town of Bethlehem as "a place believed by some Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ." Now, I ask you, what is this phrase trying to do? Is the author suggesting that some people think that he was born in Chicago? Is there any other town on the face of the earth than Bethlehem that claims to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ? So the point of this fuzzy reference is to refuse to give credence or place to Christ as a historical actor in the history of the world. The necessity of making religion a purely private affair, which is fundamental to the modern project since the 18th century, require writers of a modern sensibility to try to destroy or dismiss the objective reality of what Christ has accomplished by his life, his death, his resurrection, his glorification, and in his establishment of the Catholic Church. The Church is part of that inconvenient truth that keeps surfacing again and again. In spite of the world's attempts to bury him, he keeps showing up in the lives of those who live in communion with him by the Holy Spirit he has sent upon them.
In today's Gospel, the apostles John and James tried to finagle the top seats in glory, much to the chagrin of the other apostles. The Lord points out that what they desire is a noble thing: to share his life and suffering and death and glorification, but that the heights of glory and are for those for whom they have been reserved by the Father. In the meantime, Jesus' people are to seek greatness by imitating the Master by serving each other as he did, he who is willing to take the position of the lowliest slave in the household, for whom no task is too dirty, thankless, or low to do for those whom he loved, whether washing the filth of the street from their feet at the Last Supper, or passionately pouring out his life's blood on Calvary for hearts too cold or preoccupied to make the slightest effort to love him back.
Jesus is the Truth that will not stay buried. May he keep turning up in our life, serving us even in those times that we have forgotten him for a bit. Christ is risen! He is Truly risen!
No comments:
Post a Comment