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29. It is unthinkable that a search so deeply rooted in human nature would be completely vain and useless. The capacity to search for truth and to pose questions itself implies the rudiments of a response. Human beings would not even begin to search for something of which they knew nothing or for something which they thought was wholly beyond them. Only the sense that they can arrive at an answer leads them to take the first step. This is what normally happens in scientific research. When scientists, following their intuition, set out in search of the logical and verifiable explanation of a phenomenon, they are confident from the first that they will find an answer, and they do not give up in the face of setbacks. They do not judge their original intuition useless simply because they have not reached their goal; rightly enough they will say that they have not yet found a satisfactory answer.
The same must be equally true of the search for truth when it comes to the ultimate questions. The thirst for truth is so rooted in the human heart that to be obliged to ignore it would cast our existence into jeopardy. Everyday life shows well enough how each one of us is preoccupied by the pressure of a few fundamental questions and how in the soul of each of us there is at least an outline of the answers. One reason why the truth of these answers convinces is that they are no different in substance from the answers to which many others have come. To be sure, not every truth to which we come has the same value. But the sum of the results achieved confirms that in principle the human being can arrive at the truth.
30. It may help, then, to turn briefly to the different modes of truth. Most of them depend upon immediate evidence or are confirmed by experimentation. This is the mode of truth proper to everyday life and to scientific research. At another level we find philosophical truth, attained by means of the speculative powers of the human intellect. Finally, there are religious truths which are to some degree grounded in philosophy, and which we find in the answers which the different religious traditions offer to the ultimate questions.(27)
The truths of philosophy, it should be said, are not restricted only to the sometimes ephemeral teachings of professional philosophers. All men and women, as I have noted, are in some sense philosophers and have their own philosophical conceptions with which they direct their lives. In one way or other, they shape a comprehensive vision and an answer to the question of life's meaning; and in the light of this they interpret their own life's course and regulate their behaviour. At this point, we may pose the question of the link between, on the one hand, the truths of philosophy and religion and, on the other, the truth revealed in Jesus Christ. But before tackling that question, one last datum of philosophy needs to be weighed.
31. Human beings are not made to live alone. They are born into a family and in a family they grow, eventually entering society through their activity. From birth, therefore, they are immersed in traditions which give them not only a language and a cultural formation but also a range of truths in which they believe almost instinctively. Yet personal growth and maturity imply that these same truths can be cast into doubt and evaluated through a process of critical enquiry. It may be that, after this time of transition, these truths are “recovered” as a result of the experience of life or by dint of further reasoning. Nonetheless, there are in the life of a human being many more truths which are simply believed than truths which are acquired by way of personal verification. Who, for instance, could assess critically the countless scientific findings upon which modern life is based? Who could personally examine the flow of information which comes day after day from all parts of the world and which is generally accepted as true? Who in the end could forge anew the paths of experience and thought which have yielded the treasures of human wisdom and religion? This means that the human being—the one who seeks the truth—is also the one who lives by belief.
32. In believing, we entrust ourselves to the knowledge acquired by other people. This suggests an important tension. On the one hand, the knowledge acquired through belief can seem an imperfect form of knowledge, to be perfected gradually through personal accumulation of evidence; on the other hand, belief is often humanly richer than mere evidence, because it involves an interpersonal relationship and brings into play not only a person's capacity to know but also the deeper capacity to entrust oneself to others, to enter into a relationship with them which is intimate and enduring.
It should be stressed that the truths sought in this interpersonal relationship are not primarily empirical or philosophical. Rather, what is sought is the truth of the person—what the person is and what the person reveals from deep within. Human perfection, then, consists not simply in acquiring an abstract knowledge of the truth, but in a dynamic relationship of faithful self-giving with others. It is in this faithful self-giving that a person finds a fullness of certainty and security. At the same time, however, knowledge through belief, grounded as it is on trust between persons, is linked to truth: in the act of believing, men and women entrust themselves to the truth which the other declares to them.
Any number of examples could be found to demonstrate this; but I think immediately of the martyrs, who are the most authentic witnesses to the truth about existence. The martyrs know that they have found the truth about life in the encounter with Jesus Christ, and nothing and no-one could ever take this certainty from them. Neither suffering nor violent death could ever lead them to abandon the truth which they have discovered in the encounter with Christ. This is why to this day the witness of the martyrs continues to arouse such interest, to draw agreement, to win such a hearing and to invite emulation. This is why their word inspires such confidence: from the moment they speak to us of what we perceive deep down as the truth we have sought for so long, the martyrs provide evidence of a love that has no need of lengthy arguments in order to convince. The martyrs stir in us a profound trust because they give voice to what we already feel and they declare what we would like to have the strength to express.
33. Step by step, then, we are assembling the terms of the question. It is the nature of the human being to seek the truth. This search looks not only to the attainment of truths which are partial, empirical or scientific; nor is it only in individual acts of decision-making that people seek the true good. Their search looks towards an ulterior truth which would explain the meaning of life. And it is therefore a search which can reach its end only in reaching the absolute.(28) Thanks to the inherent capacities of thought, man is able to encounter and recognize a truth of this kind. Such a truth—vital and necessary as it is for life—is attained not only by way of reason but also through trusting acquiescence to other persons who can guarantee the authenticity and certainty of the truth itself. There is no doubt that the capacity to entrust oneself and one's life to another person and the decision to do so are among the most significant and expressive human acts.
It must not be forgotten that reason too needs to be sustained in all its searching by trusting dialogue and sincere friendship. A climate of suspicion and distrust, which can beset speculative research, ignores the teaching of the ancient philosophers who proposed friendship as one of the most appropriate contexts for sound philosophical enquiry.
From all that I have said to this point it emerges that men and women are on a journey of discovery which is humanly unstoppable—a search for the truth and a search for a person to whom they might entrust themselves. Christian faith comes to meet them, offering the concrete possibility of reaching the goal which they seek. Moving beyond the stage of simple believing, Christian faith immerses human beings in the order of grace, which enables them to share in the mystery of Christ, which in turn offers them a true and coherent knowledge of the Triune God. In Jesus Christ, who is the Truth, faith recognizes the ultimate appeal to humanity, an appeal made in order that what we experience as desire and nostalgia may come to its fulfilment.
34. This truth, which God reveals to us in Jesus Christ, is not opposed to the truths which philosophy perceives. On the contrary, the two modes of knowledge lead to truth in all its fullness. The unity of truth is a fundamental premise of human reasoning, as the principle of non-contradiction makes clear. Revelation renders this unity certain, showing that the God of creation is also the God of salvation history. It is the one and the same God who establishes and guarantees the intelligibility and reasonableness of the natural order of things upon which scientists confidently depend,(29) and who reveals himself as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This unity of truth, natural and revealed, is embodied in a living and personal way in Christ, as the Apostle reminds us: “Truth is in Jesus” (cf. Eph 4:21; Col 1:15-20). He is the eternal Word in whom all things were created, and he is the incarnate Word who in his entire person (30) reveals the Father (cf. Jn 1:14, 18). What human reason seeks “without knowing it” (cf. Acts 17:23) can be found only through Christ: what is revealed in him is “the full truth” (cf. Jn 1:14-16) of everything which was created in him and through him and which therefore in him finds its fulfilment (cf. Col 1:17).
35. On the basis of these broad considerations, we must now explore more directly the relationship between revealed truth and philosophy. This relationship imposes a twofold consideration, since the truth conferred by Revelation is a truth to be understood in the light of reason. It is this duality alone which allows us to specify correctly the relationship between revealed truth and philosophical learning. First, then, let us consider the links between faith and philosophy in the course of history. From this, certain principles will emerge as useful reference-points in the attempt to establish the correct link between the two orders of knowledge.
There are three Un-created Persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Created persons are either angels or human beings. The essence or nature of the Un-created Person cannot possibly be defined or described by the human mind. One can simply extend the qualities of the created person into the realm of infinity, into a realm which has no limits, to come up with only a faint notion of what the Un-created Person might be like. The human mind can scarcely have a vague notion of even what the angelic person might be like.
There is, between the human person and the angelic person, a great distinction of quality. The human person operates through a composite of body and spirit; the angelic person operates through that which is pure spirit. Man, taken generically, is a rational animal; the angel is purely spiritual. There is among the angelic persons a gradation of perfection which in itself is beyond the comprehension of the human mind.
Amongst all of the terrestrial creatures, only human beings are persons. The Divine Creator, making use of His Infinite Intelligence and Power, chose to create a species which brings the animal nature and the angelic nature into a composition resulting in what is known as human nature. The human person operates through this human nature. Correspondingly, the angelic person operates or functions through the angelic nature. It is the Creator of all things Who has defined and brought into existence the qualities of each, the human and the angelic natures. It is the same Creator Who creates a distinct and unique person and, so to speak, sets it into operation either within the human or angelic nature.
In the next installment I shall continue in this same vein, delving more into the human nature of man.
The shelter of my Immaculate Heart and the refuge of my Divine Son's Sacred Heart shall remain your comfort. Through your conversion of heart you shall be bound together in faith-filled refuges where my Divine Son is preserved, honored, adored, loved and trusted above all else.
My little ones, the legions of satan daily seep into every life, every home. These demons seek to destroy faith, to wipe away your faith with false promises of bodily comfort.
O! How I weep for all who have listened to and believed the evil one's lies. How I long for each of my little ones to keep the evil one far away by loving my Son and walking the Way of the Cross.
Mankind is weak, far away from God. Therefore, your world is already ruled by the evil one. So many of my cherished, consecrated priest-sons and religious no longer possess faith, but preach and practice a false, heathen god - humanism. I solemnly tell you that so far into my Divine Son's Church has the evil one penetrated that already my holy, saintly Pope John Paul II is exiled, because so few are faithful to him as my Divine Son's Vicar. Daily his martyrdom increases, and the moment when his holy suffering is to be completed draws close.
Pray! Pray! Pray! The angel of light has descended to mark all of my faithful little ones.
Pray! Pray! Pray that my Immaculate Heart may triumph sooner, for then shall God's Justice purify all of His creation.
Let every soul be holy - a living tabernacle. Let those who love my Divine Son come together to adore Him in perpetual Adoration. Let no sacrifice escape you; sacrifice nothing to be with my Divine Son that in the time of Great Darkness He shall be your Light.
I love and bless you. Thank you for responding to my Call!
You cannot be holy if you do not love God first before you seek to help your neighbor.
I solemnly tell all of my little ones that the evil one has used social justice to ensnare many. These souls work for "human equality and human justice" but they do not realize how finite and fallible are their ideas. In truth these forms of social justice are merely pride - satan's greatest weapon.
You must place all things in God's hands and, through your lowliness, allow Him to direct all actions. Then you live in accord with the Divine Will, and His Light shines through you.
Therefore, I ask each of my little ones as you enter the Holy Season of Lent to pray and fast truthfully. Do mortification that the lower human passions may be subdued. In this way you shall grow closer to my Divine Son, Who shall send the Holy Spirit to enlighten you in all things.
I solemnly tell you that this is the Year of Tears; the Hour of Great Sorrow is upon you. My time to be with you comes to an end. Therefore, use this Holy Season of Lent to cast off the world and pick up your cross. The world is at Calvary. Only those whose faith is strong shall persevere. Pray! My little ones. O! Please pray and be of one mind and heart through the grace of the Holy Spirit.
I love and bless you. Thank you for responding to my Call!
720 A.D.
Pope Saint Gregory II elevates Saint Boniface to Bishop, sending him to Germany.
1215 A.D.
Pope Innocent III closes the 4th Lateran Council - Twelfth Ecumenical Council in which a crusade had been planned, a decree had been made on annual communion, the heretic Albigenses was condemned, and numerous reforms enacted.
1554 A.D.
England tries to reconcile with Rome and Pope Julius III after the death of Henry VIII, but most of the damage had already been done and the Catholic Church would never hold prominence in Britain again with the exception of Ireland which would remain loyal to the Holy See through all adversity over the centuries.
1830 A.D.
Death of Pope Pius VIII, 253rd successor of Peter. This open-minded pontiff who had been born in Cingoli, Rome died at the age of 69 after dealing with the Sultan in favor of the Armenians, beginning the postal service of the Vatican State, and strengthening missionary activity throughout the world. It was during his pontificate that the political movement gained steam for reunification of Italy and would eventually lead to the end of the papal states and the establishment of Vatican City.
1980 A.D.
Pope John Paul II publishes his second encyclical Dives in misericordia on Divine Mercy.
