MILLENNIA APART, TWO LETTERS ON TRUTH

A recent cybersecurity software glitch had a massive impact on global activity, from supermarkets and banks to airports. This instance of safeguards run amok highlights, at the same time, how exposed we are to all sorts of threats in the realm of information too.  

And all these dangers come down to, essentially, one thing: lies. Cyber criminals are swindlers. They are always looking for ways to worm their way into our lives to steal essential information about our identity, manipulate our behavior, and lead us down the road to perdition, whether in our private life or in our civic duties as citizens of a free, democratic society. 

The reading from Paul’s letter to Timothy on Sunday (2 Timothy 2:15-19) is incredibly relevant in this world. He urges Timothy to beware false teachers, warning that “their teaching will spread like gangrene” (2 Timothy 2:17).  

That is exactly how false teachings spread in our age of noise and information overload: like gangrene. We have become jaded in our attitude towards truth, swiftly dismissing it as an impossible pursuit as we ponder, with indifference or fierce partisanship, the plethora of voices around us proclaiming so many different “truths.” 

Yet the complexities of reality do not amount to truth. There is only one Truth, and faith is the only road to it. In this Sunday’s reading, Paul tells Timothy to be a worker of God, “who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”  

Closer to home in the United States, take it from Thomas Jefferson, in these times when so much is at stake. In his letter to John Adams, his fellow Founding Father, he advised him to “follow truth as the only safe guide.”