by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
“What is truth?” John 18:38
The most fundamental need of human beings is to know the truth. Unless they know the truth, they cannot choose what is truly good. What is truly good is that which leads us to eternal life.
The focus of the present issue of The Catholic Faith is on our right to the truth. There is a profound reason for addressing ourselves to this subject. It is the widespread ignorance of the truth with devastating consequences that have made our century the most homicidal in the history of the human race.
Words like “freedom” and “liberty” and “choice” have become almost sacred in the vocabulary of modern man. But these words are less than meaningful, unless they are found on the truth.
God has given us a free will that we might use it to cooperate with His grace. But our mind must be enlightened to recognize His grace in our lives. Otherwise we run the risk of choosing what we like rather than what is pleasing to God.
In sheer justice, God wants us to know His will. To know His will is to know the truth. That is why we have a right to the truth, since we have a right to be happy and there is no happiness either in time or in eternity except in doing the will of God.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a blessed gift from the Vicar of Christ. Page after page of the catechism spells out what God wants us to believe, how we are to worship Him and obey His laws, and how we are to pray.
But there are powers and agencies in our day that either misunderstand the Church’s teaching or misrepresent her doctrine. That is why The Catholic Faith magazine was requested by the Holy See: to help people understand what the catechism really says and put this teaching into practice in their lives.
Our Lord promised that if we possess the truth we shall be free. We shall be spared the blindness of being out of contact with reality. We shall be blessed with the happiness that only those enjoy who live the truth which Christ, who is Truth Incarnate, came into the world and died on the Cross to reveal.
