Truth versus Conspiracy of Silence (Saturday, Lent 4)

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There is a learned man, a philosopher, called Martin Heidegger. He personified truth as a lady. According to him, lady truth dwells or lives in the open region. She can only be found in the open where she shows, reveals or exposes herself. What it then means is that for anyone to be on the side of the truth, the person must come to the open. You can’t identify with the truth at the backyard. You must come to the open, to the frontage: that is where truth dwells.


Truth is accuracy; truth is factuality; truth is rightness. To stand on the side of truth is to be on the side of accuracy, factuality and rightness. For Christians, truth is even stretched further to mean “righteousness or uprightness”. In the gospels, Christ identifies Himself as the truth: “I am the way, the truth and the life”. Furthermore, to be on the side of truth then is to be on the side of righteousness or uprightness, it is to be on the side of Christ. If we are to reason along with Heidegger, then any person who claims to be Christian must come to the open, must identify with Christ because He is the truth.


Such an action will surely attract persecutions and hatred. Truth is bitter; and many people don’t want to be confronted with the truth. To truly live and act as a Christian is to side with the truth and consequently expose one’s life to danger. Prophets spoke the truth and suffered for it. Many men and women spoke the truth and suffered for it. In Jer. 11:18-20, the prophet Jeremiah expressed himself as one who was also going through the same treatment. For being on the side of truth, he was taken away like a lamb being led to the slaughter. In John 7:40-53, Jesus’ words of truth must have sounded like a thunderbolt to those who listened to Him: some officers of the Jewish Sanhedrin acknowledged him to be a true prophet and some others wanted to arrest Him but could not. Charges were mounting higher and tragedy loomed very large because Truth was being laid bare.


There are two things about truth: IT EXPOSES AND ENDANGERS. Truth exposes itself, exposes falsehood and ends up endangering itself. Maybe because of the risks of identifying with the truth, many of us have chosen to toe the path of the conspiracy of silence. What suffers the truth more is not those who attack it but those who are silent about it. Evil abounds because good people do and say nothing. In the midst of those who listened to Jeremiah, I want to believe that there were people who were touched by his teaching, people who were not happy about the unjust treatment he received. It is not enough being unhappy about it. Did they do anything to defend him? Amongst those who listened to Jesus, we know that there were people who were touched by the truth of his message. But what did they do as He was being led to the cross? Everybody wants to play safe; and the truth continues to suffer.


In Jn. 7:40-53, Nicodemus shows us a starry example: that we can disengage from the crowd when the integrity of TRUTH is at stake, not minding whose ox is gored. Lives have been lost and many have suffered greatly because of the dictatorship of the crowd. The dictatorship of the crowd has created room for the multiplication of unjust laws and brutal policies. Majority continues to carry the vote. And many of us have chosen to conspire in silence: doing nothing and saying nothing. Let this period be a time for us to ask ourselves whether we are really on the side of TRUTH or against the TRUTH. It is either/or. There is no middle ground. It is either you are with Christ or against Him.


Prayer:

Lord, give me the courage to stand by You, to stand with the Truth and never to be silent when the Truth is being silenced or persecuted, Amen!


Have a fruitful Lenten journey!



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