The
Whole Truth (Inspired by Fr. Richard Rohr)
God
loves you. God loves the true you, the one He created, the eternal soul that is
your identity in God. God's love is true for every person. But most choose to
believe something else.
Let
me tell you a story. (Inspired: Old Turtle and the Broken Truth by
Douglas Wood)
A
long time ago, a great truth fell from heaven.
As it fell, it broke in two. One piece was found by man who look at it
said it was a great truth. Man brought it to the people who built a tower for
this truth so all the world could see that they had truth. Others also wanted
the truth. Those who had the truth did not share and jealously began. The ones
with the truth said of others - They do not deserve this truth. And people
began to fight over the truth.
One
youth looked at the truth and realized it was broken, a part was missing.
Leaving the village, the youth set out to find what was missing of this truth.
Searching for years, the youth grew much older before the missing part of the
truth was found. Now, as an elder, the former youth returned to the village to
find people were still fighting over the truth.
The
elder asked that the truth to be taken down from the tower. The people saw the
truth and it was brilliant. The truth was golden. On that piece of the truth
was written, "You are loved;"
All
the people shouted that the truth belonged only to them. The elder raised a
hand and the crowd grew quite. Pointing to the jagged edge, the elder showed
that the truth was broken. It was not the whole truth.
The
elder showed the found piece. It was brilliant. It was golden. It completed the
first truth. Putting the two together, the elder showed all the whole truth.
All realized their wrong. All saw the whole truth. The whole truth is,
"You are loved and so are they."
This
is our world, this story of a fragmented and broken world. It is not the world
that God made. God created the world to be whole.
To
make the world whole once more, God sent truth to the world.
Instead
of embracing the truth, humanity has broken the truth. People have taken one
part of the truth and claimed it. We are loved and no one else is loved. The
truth belongs to us. The others, they are not loved.
Instead
of moving to a union with God, the whole truth, complete love; we read and
interpret to our own broken individualistic truth. The only truth we want to
hear, but it may not be the whole truth.
It
was the whole truth that Jesus preached. The truth of Christ that "You are
loved; and so are they!"
Accepting
the whole truth we can't play games of a judging, labeling, and punishing
others. The gospel of Jesus is the whole truth - ""You have heard
it said "You shall not kill..., You shall not commit adultery..., Do not
take a false oath...."" Jesus brings the whole truth in his words,
"But I say to you ...." and he brings us the truth of love.
"Love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and
knows God." (1
Jn 4)
Only
a few get this. Most choose something else. Jesus said follow him, get close
and know his love, but we worship him from far off. Instead of moving to a
union with God, the whole truth, we read the Bible and interpret its truth in
selfish ways. Ways that help us know only the broken truth, only the part of
the message we want to hear.
The
whole truth is the wisdom of God. Wisdom that is the mysterious truth God
established before the each and every one of us. A wisdom people have forgotten.
St. Paul writes if this wisdom was known they would not have crucified the Lord
of glory."
It
is the wisdom of knowing the whole truth that God reveals to us through the
Holy Spirit. The whole truth that is for each and every one of you - all those
who are not here, strangers, those we call our enemy, those who are saints, and
those who are sinners - God loves the true you, the one he created, the eternal
soul, your identity in God.
You
are loved and so are they.
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