Reflections on Truth
In one of the letters to his family Ruben reflected on the notion of truth, prompted by life story of Saint Francis of Assisi, works by Saint Augustine and other thinkers.
“We receive an immense flood of information – necessary and unnecessary, authentic and false – and we tend to absorb only what speaks to us, what already resonates with our desires. One of the gravest dangers is not ignorance but self-deception: the slow habit of believing our own distortions.
Augustine reminds us that truth is often hated, not because it is false, but because it contradicts what we wish to call our own truth. We love truth when it consoles us, yet resist it when it judges us. We are willing to deceive, but resent being deceived. Thus, truth is welcomed when it comforts, and rejected when it challenges our principles or unmasks our pride.
A soul is at peace only when it rests in the ultimate Truth – the Truth that is both beginning and end. Such joy arises with the recognition that we are not self-sufficient, that we stand in gratitude and debt to the world as it is.
There is not a plurality of truths to be owned, but one Truth to be received: that we are indebted not to ourselves, but to God.”
