What do we make of Truth and Tradition?

How do we find truth in this world when we are bombarded by so many “versions” of it? Is your religion "true for you but not for me?" Is it all relative? Maybe Truth is beyond anything we can imagine. Maybe what appear to be contradictions or impossibilities might have explanations that we can’t grasp in this life. But I don't think it is too complex to grasp. I think, rather, it involves a simplicity that we are not willing to accept or that our minds and hearts are too distracted to welcome. Jesus said “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.” (Matt. 22: 37-40).  The essence of those commandments is very simple and just as He says, it is what all the teaching boils down to. If we could master just these two simple tasks, we would be saints. We wouldn’t need any other rule or teaching. 

So why so many rules? Maybe its because we are not willing to accept the simplicity and the reality of the task of giving our whole heart to love. It is too hard for us to follow because it requires too much goodness. It requires a singleness of heart. So we need a rule for every situation and an explanation for everything to help us. Unfortunately sometimes it just makes things more complicated. Since we do not have enough love in our hearts to resist the temptation to see ourselves as the center of the universe, we need to have a specific rule about stealing, for example. Not only that, we need an explanation about what counts as stealing. The list of rules and guidelines and explanations is endless and it almost seems ridiculous.

For some people, all these rules and traditions get in the way of focusing ones heart on love above all. It may just create further distraction. 

But I think they can be quite helpful for many people, myself included. For me its a trusty moral compass. While at times my intuition leads me somewhere off the map, at least I can be reminded of which direction is which. Without specific guidelines it could become extremely easy for us to justify something selfish we did or want to do. If there is no clear rule against this very specific thing that is tempting us, then we can come up with almost any excuse to make it seem acceptable in our eyes, even though we don’t realize we are actually deluding ourselves. Most moral guidelines that are part of a legitimate religious tradition (one which has been the tradition of saints and sages) have passed the test of time and passed through the wisdom of good people who knew how to follow the commandment to love in the fullest way. For example, not only did the good spiritual people of the past realize that it was beneficial to pray and/or meditate in order to cultivate love in one’s heart, but also some taught that one should not neglect this practice even for a day. Thus it became a guideline and in some cases, a rule.

What about the Catholic teaching, which states “homosexual acts” are wrong? Is this something that is “true for you but not for me”? This is a teaching that many Saints have agreed to be true (such as Aquinas, Augustine, and even Hildegard of Bingen, a female Saint who challenged the authorities of her time and has been beloved by many feminists). Are we more morally upright than they? I think those who passed on this teaching were guided by a truth that may not be as apparent to us in our times. Founded in the truth that we must love our neighbor, the specific rule was formed that we must be truly united in love and made into a family in order to view our sexual partner as more than just an object for our pleasure. Currently and throughout the history of the Catholic Church and its Jewish predecessors, this could only be done through the sacrament of marriage between man and woman. Will this teaching change now that it is clear that gay and lesbian couples can be committed and faithful partners? I don’t know. If it does, it probably won’t be for a long time, until a new understanding can pass the test of time and the wisdom of current and future Saints.  For gay Catholics today, deciding whether to express oneself sexually is a matter of balancing Catholic wisdom and Tradition with one’s gut feelings. And while Tradition is important and should not be shrugged aside, your own heart and conscience should be primary above any teaching of the Magisterium. Even the Pope has said so!

When it comes to the “truths” we meet in this life, whether they be within our own experiences and tradition or someone else’s, the fact is there is only one Truth. That is the Truth of love.  We must at all times be guided by this simple commandment to love. If we can trust the teachings of the Saints and Sages who have gone before us, it will be essential for us to follow their advice and adhere to the teachings of the Tradition they helped shape. If we believe that times are changing or that God is calling us to a different path, we have to follow our hearts, but we must at all times beware of our own justifications. I think the most important thing is that the word we spread when we preach the truth is that Truth is Love and nothing else. If our teaching is anything other than love it amounts to nothing.  This is the Law and the Prophets.

A destination that terrifies you - Wait! It gets better

I am currently reading the book Virtually Normal by Andrew Sullivan. I was struck by this analogy to the experience of discovering you are gay as a young person when growing up in a not-so-accepting environment:

“I could no longer hide from the explicit desire… an undeniable and powerful attraction to other boys and men. And of course, with all of this came an exquisite and inextricable sense of exhilaration as well as disgust. It was like getting on a plane for the first time, being exhilarated by its ascent, gazing with wonder out of the window, seeing the clouds bob beneath you, but then suddenly realizing that you are on the wrong flight, going to a destination which terrifies you, surrounded by people who inwardly appall you. And you cannot get off. You are filled with a lurching panic. You are one of them.” (Virtually Normal pg. 10-11)

Unlike so many troubled gay teenagers out there, I grew up in a very accepting environment. My family is not Catholic but rather liberal Methodist. But even for me, I recognize this feeling that Sullivan describes here. Even if you know the people around you will be accepting of you, there is still this feeling that comes over you when you begin to discover that you are different. The panic comes over you when you start realizing what this means. My life is going to be very different than what I thought, what my family and friends expect, and what society considers normal. And as you begin to accept it within, the overwhelming implications dawn on you: How will I tell people? Will I be alone? Will people judge me or persecute me? It’s very scary. I imagine it is much scarier when you live in an environment that is not accepting.

As I write these things, I am thinking of the current “It gets better” campaign. There is really no way to avoid the pain that comes with realizing you are gay unless you’re really lucky and somehow it doesn’t affect you. You just have to trust that it really does get better. How? You will be surprised by how well you face each obstacle. And once you’re past one obstacle, you will be stronger and wiser and better able to overcome the next. The panic and fear subsides. At first you feel alone, like there is no one to confide in. But later on you make contacts with people who you can relate to and who have lots of great advice and who bring happiness into your life. 

-SCOUT