truth – JonMarc Grodi

Aug 22

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Lying and Other Obstacles to Truth

By JonMarc Grodi | Truth, Why Aren't We Saints? | No Comments

I very much appreciated Leah Libresco’s succinct treatment of the topic of lying that was featured on Strange Notions today as the third in a series of articles about the topic. Her title was “Interfering with the Eschaton:Why Lying is wrong”.

As I have read the various explorations of the topics over the past couple of years I have had to agree with Leah and others who conclude that lying simply can’t be rationalized the way we sometimes want it to be. The world is broken and in need of healing and any time we deal with this difficulty through sinful means, we have passed the buck. We have insisted that the heroic virtue is someone’s else’s job,

This is not a comfortable conclusion but it is the one that seems most logically coherent with how I understand the world. It makes me uncomfortable in precisely the way that the cross makes me uncomfortable.

Near the end of her article, Leah introduced a very important point:

Honesty is a starting point; you can take the duty to avoid passive deception much further. Humans are prone to any number of biases that make it hard to hear or notice the truth. You may be telling the truth when you use CAPS LOCK, but you’ve made it harder for your interlocutor to listen to you. Tone can be as effective a barrier to truth as misdirection.

This caught my eye because the problem of inadvertently (or sometimes intentionally) erecting unnecessary barriers for other people to come to the truth is a favorite topic of mine and one I plan to write on more. On the topic of the morality of lying, this excerpt introduces an aspect of the the debate that I have wanted to address.

To Leah and others who have so eloquently treated this issue and explained the tough conclusion that lying is simply wrong, I would like to make a suggestion per not erecting unnecessary barriers to others whom we would like to help see this truth.

While I myself have come to accept this tough conclusion, I sympathize (perhaps because of the recency of my change in thinking) with those whose gut-reaction in response to the hypothetical Nazi scenario is to rationalize lying. One of the difficulties here is that we have too much hollywood and not enough saints. We have a plethora of mental images of how easy it would be to lie and all the goods that might come in consequence, and we have little mental material with which to imagine the alternative.

I think it would be helpful (as well as charitable) for some of the excellent writers and thinkers on this topic to indulge people who are morally paralyzed by such hypothetical scenarios by exploring what the alternatives to lying might be. If the Nazis really do show up at our doors tomorrow morning, and yet we are convicted against lying, what should we do? What does it look like? Let me be quite clear: I am not asking this rhetorically as a sort of “gotcha” as is the cliche, I am sincerely asking a question which I suspect is probably on the minds of many well-intentioned but troubled souls. We need to help re-populate the moral imaginations of those who find this a “difficult teaching”. (Would any good fiction writers out there like to take up the task? Or do you have some good sci-fi scenarios to recommend?)

Refusing to sympathize with such people and to address their concerns, I think, would be an example of one of these unnecessary barriers to truth. We may be tempted to consider such concern with contempt, perhaps recollecting our own past weaknesses and rationalizations, but we mustn’t lose souls in our enthusiasm to assert the point. Just as the rejection of lying involves embracing the Truth over what is immediately gratifying or comforting, so does tempering self-satisfaction and indignation such that we can speak charitably and sympathetically to those in doubt. As Leah states: “Love begins by not placing any new obstacles in the way of our neighbors.” If we want more people to be freed by this tough truth, let us love them enough to attempt to tell the Truth in a way that will help them better hear it (i.e. wight he CAPS LOCK turned off for starters).

In closing, we should expect to be challenged by the Truth and suspicious when we aren’t. In this case, the easy but ultimately wrong road is unfortunately a very familiar one in our minds. Speak the truth in charity, sympathize with those who are troubled, and regarding this particular topic, help people imagine what the hard but right road might look like – you may give them the nudge they need to embrace the cross.

(Caveat: Any potential character flaws alluded to in this piece are directed at the only soul I have first-hand knowledge of: my own. They may be of limited relevance to the rest of the world.)

Nov 04

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What Faith Is and Isn’t – Fr. Robert Barron

By JonMarc Grodi | Culture, Truth, Uncategorized, Why Aren't We Saints? | 2 Comments

Here is another among the many excellent videos by Fr. Robert Barron. The video clarifies the common but (I think) often misused or misunderstood term “faith”.

This particular video caught my eye and then my immense interest and excitement upon watching because Fr. Barron beautifully and concisely explains faith as it needs to be explained to the modern mind, for whom the word has so much baggage that it almost loses all meaning.

Using human relationships as an analogy, Fr. Barron shows how faith is not only normal but necessary in our relationships with both the human and the divine . In his example, Fr. Barron explains that while we can and do use our reason to learn much about another person, there is a whole world of knowledge about that person we will never know without them telling us: their thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams, desires, goals, etc. To know a person on this level we must listen to them speak and at some point make the choice to trust what they say. Without this trust, human relationships are impossible. ( I once used a very similar example and line of thought in a talk I gave to high schoolers about the nature of faith. Great minds think alike, and mediocre minds, like mine, sometimes get lucky.)

This is insightful because faith is seldom thought of or talked about in a relational sense. Often faith is reduced by both believers and nonbelievers to being blind belief, superstition, or a mere wager on God’s potential existence based on the probabilities of risk and reward. But this is simply not what Catholics mean by religious faith.

In article 26 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church it states, “faith is man’s response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man”. Humans cannot initiate faith on our own (as they could if faith simply were an act of blind belief or a bet). Rather, faith is a relational response to God. God reveals himself and it is our decision to trust this revelation and act upon it which constitutes faith.

I think this idea of faith clarifies and makes sense out of a term that is often used quite vaguely. However, I think it is also challenging. It implies that faith really is about an encounter with God, a relationship with God. It is about trusting and obeying a live author who entered His own story in the person of Jesus Christ and remains present and approachable in prayer and in the sacraments of the Church.

If, contrary to its detractors, faith is not mere blind belief, superstition, or a cosmic wager, but rather a “yes” to the God who reveals Himself to us in Christ, the Word, through the natural world, art, beauty, the Church, the sacraments, and in our own hearts, there are important questions to be pondered by believers and non-believers alike.

Have I rejected or feared “faith” because I thought it was superstition or a blind jump? Am I open enough to Truth that I would accept and put faith in God if I really did encounter Him? Have I really sought God Himself or rather just some mental proposition about God? Though I purport to “believe”, have I avoided this kind of faith in God for fear that He may not really be there? Have I avoided this kind of faith in God for fear that He really might be there after all, and want more from me than I am willing to give?

Here are a couple of my articles that ask and ponder similar questions:

Eucharistic Adoration: Alone with the Perilous Question

Two Fears – The Reasons We Avoid Discovering Whether God Is Really There

The com-box is open. I would love to know your thoughts!

Sep 27

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Functionalism and Human Personhood

By JonMarc Grodi | Philosophy and Culture, The Human Person, Uncategorized | No Comments

For your entertainment and pondering, here is a video project from my college days that addresses the topic of “Functionalism and the Human Person”.

Functionalist definitions of person-hood are often used in the abortion debate as a justification for why unborn children do not posses the right to life. The attempt is made to reduce the definition of the “human person” to simply that of the aggregate of its functions. In other words, the functionalist claims that we afford individuals the right to life – “person-hood” – because of what they do rather than what they are.

The two videos provide a quick and dirty look at how functionalism is used (errantly in my opinion) to describe or define (and in some cases, explain away) what it means to be a human “person”. If you enjoy the video and want to read a bit more, I have attached my corresponding essay that is more in depth and has citations for you to pursue.

Enjoy, and let me know your thoughts!

Click to read my essay on Functionalism and the Human Person

Sep 06

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Making Distinctions

By JonMarc Grodi | Philosophy and Culture, Uncategorized | No Comments

As Catholics, Christians, and other concerned, principled people, we must balance our challenging of the ills in the culture with an embracing of the good, the true, and the beautiful whenever and wherever we find it. What do you think? What kinds of goods do we find sprouting in the culture? What good desires do we encounter in people that need to be encouraged and directed to Christ?

More on Our Attitudes Toward Truth

By JonMarc Grodi | Philosophy and Culture | 2 Comments

I’ve talked and written before about the necessity of a proper attitude towards truth.

I often draw a connection between the attitude of some of the more notoriously un-Christ-like fundamentalist Christians and that of militant atheists. In these two groups who seem to be such polar opposites, I think we can rightly identify a similar attitude toward truth and thus toward each other.

For both, the truth is something they have discovered and planted their own flag in. Because of a fierce possessiveness toward Truth, as they see it, they are not able to recognize it in any other group. Because of an over-confidence in themselves, their understanding of truth becomes crystallized in their minds and they are unable to continue learning more or going beyond their own understanding.

For both, Truth becomes no more than an idol of their own making – one to which they insist others do homage.

This is not the attitude toward truth that we see in the lives of the Saints. Even these great men and women who have found themselves so close to Truth Himself, never became overconfident or prideful about the truth they experienced. Rather, their humility toward truth (and others) is one of their greatest virtues. Here is a great quote from St. Augustine that a Dominican Brother at my parish clued me in on:

Seeing Thy truth is neither mine nor his nor another’s; but belongs to us all whom Thou callest publicly to partake of it, warning us terribly, not to account it private to ourselves, lest we be deprived of it. For whosoever challenges that as proper to himself, which Though propoundest to all to enjoy, and would have that his own which belongs to all, is driven from what is in common to his own;that is, from truth, to a lie. For he that speaketh a lie, speaketh it of his own. (The Confessions of St. Augustine Book XII 34.)

The saints always recognized the truth as something bigger than themselves, given by God to all. Their idea of the truth never crystallized in their minds or was something they presumed to possess a monopoly on. Rather, truth was always understood to be infinitely greater and more mysterious than they could ever imagine. Far from possessing it or discovering it, they were the ones possessed and discovered.

One the values of making this distinction between attitudes toward truth, is that the saintly examples clue us in to the attitude not only beneficial for our own souls but for those we come in contact with.

When we rightly see truth as something bigger, better, and beyond our imaginings, we become like the disciples who have first met Jesus. We run back with joy in our eyes to invite others to come hear this man who speaks like no one we have ever heard before. We don’t hang back and grumble like the scribes and pharisees, convinced and possessive of our own truth and unwilling to grow. If truth is bigger than and outside of ourselves, suddenly we are no longer enemies or even opponents in the search for truth. Rather, we are all children of the truth and thus we can invite each other into greater fullness of truth without competition.

With humility toward truth and our neighbor, we are able to affirm truth and goodness when we see it in others and use this to call both of us on to a greater fullness of truth. Recall the passage in the Book of Acts where Paul encounters the Greeks, whose culture was definitely a mixed bag as truth is concerned:

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, [1] 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; [2] (Acts 17:22-28)

Paul, a man definitely not lacking intensity and fervor, was humbly able to see the seeds of truth that already existed in the Greek culture. Rather than calling them to something opposite from their culture, he expounded on the seeds of truth and called the Greeks to pursue these to their fullness.

It is simply human nature to pursue truth, often in all the wrong places, but nevertheless. Far from attempting to extinguish or discourage the search for truth, we must affirm it in others we encounter and invite them to consider the claims of Christianity in light of this search. John Paul II writes:

“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. (Encyclical: On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason, September 14, 1998 Pope John Paul II)

Every person is longing for Jesus Christ, for His Church, for His truth. We need to pick up on these longings and show people that in Christ they are not abandoning the glimpses of beauty, truth, and goodness they have already encountered. Whether they know it or not, people have experienced glimpses of the divine in culture, art, education, family, literature, movies, and other areas of life. We must show them that in Christianity they have the possibility of “reaching the goal which they seek”: Christ, the source of all Beauty, Truth, and Goodness.

We are not calling people to a foreign, alien land. We are inviting prodigal sons and daughters – like ourselves – to come home.

Let’s make sure they feel at home when they decide to visit, shall we?

Sep 29

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Two Fears – The Reasons We Avoid Discovering Whether God Is Really There

By JonMarc Grodi | Philosophy and Culture, Why Aren't We Saints? | 5 Comments

First let me say that I am one who thinks it is healthy and helpful for people to question their faith at some point. Everyone has doubts and questions about their faith, but most people tend to bury or ignore them rather than to ever bring them out into the light.

I think a large portion of the apathy of modern believers is attributable to the fact that they are unwilling to ask the tough questions they have about the faith. Because of fear, they refuse to ask whether God really exists, whether Jesus was a real person, whether the Catholic Church is true and is guided into all truth.

But I ask, how can one really put faith in a God one has never had the courage to seek out? In fact perhaps the first act of faith – faith at least in truth – would be to face our fears and seek God Himself.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines faith as “Man’s response to God”. Man responds to a God He has met, a God who has ever been waiting for Man to finally let go of His own assumptions, his own fluffy hopes, his own rendition of “I did it My Way” – to finally open up to the real God and accept no substitutes

One way or another, we have to continually break past our ideas toward the real God, and this repetition of the formation of our concept of God and the proceeding iconoclasm is a lifelong process. Why is it necessary? Because God desires nothing less than a real relationship with us.

God doesn’t want to be our Santa Claus. He doesn’t want to be up on the shelf when we need Him, and He doesn’t just want to be an idea or vague impression that we comfort ourselves with. He also doesn’t just want to be our best bet – the conclusion we cling to because more of the evidence points in His direction.

If this was the kind of relationship God wanted, if he intended us to stop at any of these points, then what are we to do with the incarnation? The “word became flesh”! The creator entered His creation, the author entered His own story, to touch us, to speak to us, to teach us to love by example.

We tend to think that a relationship in which God is present, interacting with us, speaking to us, guiding our lives, and touching our hearts is only the lot of the very great saints. But we must face the facts here: 1) We are all called to be saints and 2) Not one of us has a valid excuse as to why we aren’t.

Every one of us has been given (and squandered) enough grace to be saints – 2 Corinthians 12:19 says “my grace is sufficient”. The only thing that has stopped this has been ourselves. Plain and simple!

But He still wants us! He still waits for the day that we grow discontent with a shallow relationship with Him, discontent with only hoping He’s there, finally ready to shed the imitations and idols in exchange for the “Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the TRUTH”. We really can have it, but we have to want it and seek it.

One of the reasons people aren’t able to really pursue God as a person, as I said before, is that we are really unwilling to ask tough questions.

These are actually very basic questions about who God is, whether He is really there, whether He really loves us – pretty fundamental questions if one is to enter into relationship! Nevertheless, though we have these questions but seldom drum up the courage to ask them.

There are TWO main fears that keep people from truly seeking God. Two main fears that the devil plays upon to trap us into wishy-washy faith:

Fear that God may not be real.
Fear that God might indeed be real after all.

Let me explain.

One of the first and most obvious reasons people do not ask the questions and pursue a relationship with God is that they fear He may not be real. The fear that is the source of this doubt is the fear that keeps people from ever pursuing the answers. There is a certain solace found in uncertainty.

Most people would rather hold on to a God they are “pretty sure” is real, rather than to attempt to seek out a real one. The problem with seeking a “real” God” is that there can be only two outcomes to the search: either He is real or He isn’t! This is dangerous! Usually too dangerous for comfort.

A God about which one is “pretty sure” can never be proven false. No amount of evidence can ever take Him away and some people prefer this solace to truth. But on the other side of the coin, one cannot have a true relationship with Him either.

It is much more comfortable to have a faith that never actually has to face the question “God, are you there?” It is not that we don’t want this type of faith. We wish we could meet Him, have confidence in His presence, come into relationship with Him, and put a confident, divinely gifted faith in this relationship of love. This is a kind of faith we all desire to have, but are afraid to ask for or to seek.

We think that to so desire such a faith may be presumptuously arrogant, unattainably obscure, or ultimately undesirable in that if we actually grasped at a faith which involves the encounter with the present and true God, we might instead find him absent and false.

The second reason that people fear to seek the real God is that they are afraid He might really be there after all.

To quote CS Lewis: “An ‘impersonal God;– well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads — better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap — best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps, approaching an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband — that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (“Man’s search for God!”) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?”

In other words, people are afraid of a God who actually makes a difference. A God about which we are only “pretty sure is out there… somewhere… maybe…” cannot ask much of us. Our lives needn’t change for such a God and we can safely contain Him as a bullet point on our list of priorities.

But what of a God who is alive? A master? A King? This is often more than we have bargained for, and perhaps we prefer to leave well enough alone. This is why people can have such a visceral aversion to the suggestion of miracles, apparitions, prayers being answered, and the like, even by “good Christians”. It is not as much our intellects being sensible as much as it is our hearts fearing a real God who is alive and can be ignored no longer.

In conclusion, I ask you to consider these two fears that may be keeping you or someone you know from truly seeking God.

Fear that He may not be real.
Fear that He may indeed by real.

But we must seek truth, brothers and sisters, and accept nothing less. God is indeed alive and waits for us. He awaits the day that we want Him enough to not be content with anything less than He Himself.

If you ask the questions, seek the truth, accept no substitutes, you will find God.

God the creator, God the author, God the conqueror, God the King. If you so desire it, you will find Him. Nay, He will find you.