The national elections held last year are a case study on truth and the coming to the light of many things about the lives of candidates. We saw a lot of muckraking, mud-slinging, and a whole lot more in the dirty tricks department coming to the fore in the run-up towards election day. In a very real sense, what was hidden often came to light and, thanks to the often close (and biased) scrutiny of either a hostile or friendly media outfit, the fates of certain candidates were either sealed or seared.
But this refers to nothing more than superficial “truth” co-opted for shallow political ends.
The saints give ample testimony to the power of a higher brand of truth — evangelical and moral truth, and how it ultimately leads to the light. No earthly power has yet managed to upstage what even Gandhi calls the “force of truth” (satyagraha). Envy and jealousy temporarily knocked out” individuals like St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, St. Benedict Menni and many others. But you can’t keep a good man down forever. One of my favorite biographies of saints is precisely that of Benedict Menni, the founder of the Hospitaller Sisters of the Sacred Hearts. Entitled KO in Terra; OK in Cielo(KO on Earth; OK in Heaven), it tells of the heroic moral sufferings that St. Benedict endured in his lifetime, even in his exile in France where he died. But in the end, the truth prevailed. His detractors are now forgotten, but his name has come to the light of earthly and heavenly glory.
This is the truth that also comes to light in the stories that we read daily from the Acts of the Apostles, including today’s first reading. The apostles did many signs and wonders. The Sanhedrin and the authorities were at their wits’ end, trying to quell their rising popularity, to no avail, “because they were afraid of being stoned by the people.”
We all have our own stories to tell of bitter undeserved pain. But today’s readings, along with the examples of the saints, ought to convince us of this: living the truth is never far from coming to the light. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB
Reflection Question:
How do I handle criticisms against me that are not founded on truth?
Lord, grant me the grace to always seek to live in the truth.
St. Venerius, pray for us.
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