Pastor’s Column for April 21, 2024
“Truth! What does that mean?”
—Pontius Pilate
Pilate was a 1st century politician. I suspect he was a cynical and hardened politician who knew that the rich and powerful could decide what was truth—but at one point he was confronted with the truth of Jesus. That encounter left him troubled, but he nonetheless acted according to the political pressures of his time. He had Jesus crucified.
Not too much has changed in 2000 years. Some politicians are still driven by the winds of political change and are essentially rudderless. Others, I’m sure, are good and wise people who are trying to serve the common good. Some others, who I don’t doubt are also sincere (although perhaps shallow in their thinking), might actually believe some theoretical but unattainable goal, and are determined to maintain that belief even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, no matter what negative consequences may occur. (Their motto seems to be: “Just ignore the truth…hold onto the ideal!”) Still others, I suspect, are willing to treat truth as malleable. In any case, our nation, whether led by politicians who are all too human, or driven by larger social forces, is in a crisis of truth.
Today, lies are substituting for truth. Lies are parading as truth. The more pernicious the lie, the more it is presented as even greater truth. And whether wittingly or unwittingly, sincerely, or insincerely, these untruths are being heralded as the means of liberation for mankind.
In this article and the next (at least), I intend to address a few of the more egregious lies in our society today and give you some insight into the truth as presented by the Church. Jesus said,
“If you live according to my teaching, you are truly my disciples; then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
Some of the distortions of truth in modern society concerning abortion and same-sex marriage I have addressed several times in previous articles, but there are others that are getting a lot of press these days and deserve to be spotlighted, particularly those relating to “gender identity.” The root of the problem, at least as I see it, can be traced back to a social phenomenon called “modernism,” followed by an even more pernicious trend termed “post-modernism”. (Likely the real roots are deeper. After all, Satan is considered “the father of lies”.)
At various times in the last few centuries, there have been periods of “enlightenment,” which sometimes challenged the traditional teachings of the Church, but always, in the end, fell far short of their high ideals for society. And for good reason, because many of their premises were ultimately flawed and shallow, or just false. Modernism might be seen as one of these. It arose in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly 1900 through about 1930, and was not just an artistic trend but a social one as well. It developed as a response to some of the major scientific discoveries and industrial changes of the time, as well as being influenced by new theories of psychology. It was a time of unprecedented rapid change, and society didn’t know how to handle that.
In the search for the deeper truths of reality, it looked within the person—who, by this time, had become just a cog in a large industrial wheel. Looking within the person replaced “looking to God.” Old values of civilization were discarded, including those taboos which suppressed immoral urges. There was a rejection of all religious and moral principles as being the only means of obtaining social progress. It sanctioned exploration of the perverse, as an attempt to get in touch with our “natural appetite” for adultery, incest, homosexuality, murder, deceit, theft, etc. Rather than perceiving these things as morally degenerate, they were seen as “liberating”! (Of course, if widely adopted and practiced, such nihilism would also result in the collapse of any civilization.) In short, it devalued any traditional or supernatural elements. It replaced God, as the focus of life, with mankind.
Post-modernism, rather than being a reaction to and rejection of modernism, instead took it a step further. Modernism may have replaced God with mankind or society, but post-modernism replaced society with the individual. Now, all truth, all reality has become entirely subjective. It is the modern equivalent of the sin of Adam and Eve, who wanted to be “like gods, knowing what is good and what is evil.” (In the ancient world it was believed that only deities could decide what was good or evil.)
In our post-modern world we now have people asserting that reality is whatever they say it is; good or evil is what they say it is. Nowhere is that more true than in our society’s confusion about gender identity, believing that individuals can simply decide what gender they are. Such individuals may be quite sincere or perhaps struggling, but the truth is, no human being has that power.
Our willingness to be compassionate towards other persons, or to respect them, doesn’t mean we have to agree with their confused thinking. It doesn’t mean we are allowed to affirm something that’s not true. Science very clearly says that there are two genders for human beings, determined at the cellular level. Chromosomes come in pairs. For the sex chromosomes you have either two “X” chromosomes, or one “X” and one “Y” chromosome. (XX is female and XY is male). Normally, each cell in the human body has 23 pairs of chromosomes. There is, as far as I know, no discovery of any other chromosomes that define gender besides the male and female pairing. To say otherwise is untrue, a lie.
Yet, how do we deal with that in our society, especially when dealing with real people with real feelings? And what are the consequences if we dare speak truth?
More next week.
In Jesus,
Fr. Michael
