Reflections | TRUTH

Listen as Msgr. Don Fischer reflects on finding truth through our differences.

One of the things I longed to do and to have for myself and to give to you is an understanding of truth. Truth. And the most interesting thing about life, and especially today, it seems there are people in extremes of what's right or wrong or what is the truth or what is error. And you find this kind of split in this division. And it's heartbreaking when it happens in families or in religious communities where people all of a sudden become enemies of each other. And it's usually because they go to extremes. 

And let's just think there's two ways that people are sort of wired together. At least that's been my experience within religion. And there are those who are very fear-based. They're just terrified of disappointing God, of doing something wrong, and of sinning. They want to know exactly what to do and how to do it. And then they can find peace because they're so afraid that they will do something that will be separating them from God. Their sin based, let's say the other side is more hope based, more engaged in a realization that this God is a forgiving God and that everything we do is forgiven.

Well, you can go to extremes with that, saying that it doesn't matter what you do and you get in that extreme. So what's the answer to all this? I mean, how do we work with this? And first of all, you have to recognize that people that are in extremes are usually thinking the other group is much more extreme than they really are. And the reason for that is because the truth is always taking the two extremes and putting them right together. There's something important about fear of the Lord in a sense. We use that in Scripture. It means awe and wonder, but it also means I want to please him. I want to do what's right. At the same time, there's a wonderful freedom in believing that God, no matter who you are, what you do, will always love you, is always there.

How do you put those two in the same place? So there's a balance. I don't think it's something you can do. I think it's something. It's a gift. But here's the key: As long as you are comfortable in either one of those extremes, you have the possibility of getting closer and closer to the truth. Try to see the value of a person who's different than you are, and hopefully they'll see value in what's different in you.

And when those two come together in a kind of formula of a friendship or of a longing for union, that's the word. Maybe that's a good description of the work of the church, because the church has always been caught between those two extremes. Negative people who hate change and think we have to go back to the way it was. People who think everything we've done so far is out of touch and we have to do something radically different. Neither one is true. Both are true. And what a gift grace can bring because it's a wisdom, not a logic. It will put those two together and you'll see something beautiful unfolding in every struggle and every difficulty you come to. And sometimes you withdraw in hope of something better, sometimes you'll be seeing something that's pretty frightening and you're going to go away from it. In either case, coming together is where it's all about.

Have a great day.

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Kyle Cross