Darkness without Truth
- POPE BENEDICT XVI
In ancient times the really terrible thing about prisons was that they cut people off from the light of day and plunged them into darkness.
So at a deeper level, the real alienation, unfreedom, and imprisonment of man consists in his want of truth. If he does not know truth, if he does not know who he is, why he is here and what the reality of this world consists in, he is only stumbling around in the dark. He is a prisoner, he is not "being's freedman."
The first and most fundamental of all human rights is the right to God...Without this basic right, which is also the right to truth, the other human rights are not enough. Without this fundamental right to truth and to God, man becomes degraded to the level of a mere creature of needs.
And the deep darkness and alienation of our times is shown in the fact that we have powers and abilities but do not know what they are for; we have so much knowledge that we are no longer able to believe and see truth; we are no longer able to embrace the totality. Our philosophy is that of Pilate: What is truth?
This only looks like a question; in fact it is a statement, to the effect that there is no truth, and only idiots and fanatics imagine they have it or argue about it. But if this is how things are, if man has no truth, only abilities, he is fundamentally alienated, and "participation" is only an empty playacting in the dark, deluding man with the notion of freedom and hurting him deeply.
There is nothing fortuitous about the strident protests against such empty freedom: man, deprived of truth, has been dishonoured.
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Acknowledgement
Pope Benedict XVI. "Darkness without Truth." from Behold the Pierced One (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1986).
Reprinted with permission of Liberia Editrice Vaticana.
The Author
Pope Benedict XVI is the author of Jesus of Nazareth, Vol II, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol I, Caritas in Veritate: Charity in Truth, Saved in Hope: Spe Salvi, God Is Love: Deus Caritas Est,The End of Time?: The Provocation of Talking about God, Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions, Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam, Salt of the Earth: An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church at the End of the Millennium, God and the World: Believing and Living in Our Time, In the Beginning: A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall, The Spirit of the Liturgy, The Ratzinger Report: An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church, Introduction to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Introduction to Christianity, Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today, Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977, Behold the Pierced One, and God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life.
