Last week, a top official was dismissed from his office for stating that widespread voter fraud across the Pond was entirely baseless and without any credibility. ‘The question of Truth’ appears once more to be on trial. Stating something loud enough, irrespective of validity, and to people who massage one’s ego sufficiently, seems to be the norm… in certain quarters. In Roman mythology, ‘Veritas,’ the goddess of Truth is the daughter of Saturn, called Chronos (Time) by the Greeks. Time will certainly tell – truth always has a habit of coming out and the checks and balances put right, though at what cost?

Without truth, stability in society and trust and confidence between individuals cannot flourish – all of us need to know ‘where we are.’

Unconcealment

However, in our dealings with others, it is well to remember the philosopher, Heidegger, who made a distinction between the Roman and Greek conceptions of truth as their gods declared it. ‘Aletheia,’ the Greek god, he argues, essentially means ‘unconcealment’: in other words bringing out of obscurity and darkness that which needs to be brought into the light. ‘Veritas’, on the other hand refers to the Roman virtue of truthfulness, a state of being reflecting that which is right, but  winsome and sensitive. Just saying something which we believe to be right, is not enough, but it is how we say it.

St Paul spoke of the need for us as citizens to ‘speak the truth in love’ and this is the challenge. Being dogmatic and ‘barking’ out a truth (to forgive the pun!) about someone or something may be technically correct but wins no favours and certainly not another person whom one may be wishing to ‘put in their place.’ It is how we say something, and exercise love with it, that is of greater importance.

In need of more grace

During this lockdown and in the midst of this prolonged pandemic, it is easy for each of us to feel tempers fraying and frustrations boiling over, and taking them out on others within our community and amongst our families is perfectly understandable, but not necessarily excusable. It is at this time that we all need to avail ourselves more of God’s grace and love, realizing that of our own resources we are frail. As the psalmist says: ‘I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to a rock that is higher than I.’ Of ourselves, especially in isolation behind our own walls, it’s so easy to shoot from the hip, to defend truth as we see it and make judgments which, though they may seem accurate are not always appropriate to articulate.

In the end, when it comes to truth, I am led to someone who declared in himself that He was The Way, the Truth and the Life. Truth, when it is clothed in flesh and soaked in love: He inspires us not to score points or put another down but always hopes, always believes the best, and always longs for God’s image in one another to be greater. Speaking the truth is good…speaking it in love is far better. ‘Love…truth…again.’

(Blog with thanks to Revd Alex Aldous, chaplain at Prestfelde Prep School, Shrewsbury)