Saturday, May 5, 2018

What is Truth? The Authentic Self


          “The meaning of life is simple, folks,” I tell my students. “Figure out what the Truth of who you are is, live that Truth, and be Truly happy.” They instinctively are dubious of this meaning. It is trite and simplistic. They have heard it a dozen times before in a dozen movies and songs. They may have even believed this ridiculous formula at some point in their young life. “Yeah, Mr. Smith, that’s stupid.” I run a pretty casual class, and they are welcome to be critical, as long as they can be logical about it. I wait to hear the rest of their thought. “It just doesn’t seem like anyone is really happy.” I challenge them to think about how Christian theology might explain it. This is where my students start to do theology: when I ask them how a Christian mindset would understand a given problem.
Capuchin Priest, Basilica of St. Fidelis, Victoria KS (P. Smith)
          I always have two or three students who really Love their Christian identity, and this is the kind of class they have been waiting for. They already learned all the details and facts about Catholic belief and practice, and they may have even done apologetics in another class or in their youth group, but they have never been given a chance to learn how to think rationally and critically about their Faith. “Mr. Smith, Christian theology would say that True happiness is something that happens outside of time and space, and when we say we know the Truth about who we are, that Truth cannot be real because we cannot know the full Truth. So, what you said can be True as long as we don’t pretend to be able to know the Truth of who we are in this world”. It is a little rough, but that is what I like to see in my classes; I like to see my students try to use the concepts and vocabulary that I teach them. This is doing theology. I actually find myself encouraging students to use the vocabulary and concepts from the class. I tell them, “Look, I know you don’t hang out with your friends on Saturday nights, sipping tea and talking about Agape or Eudaimonia or Beatific Vision or Objective and Subjective Truths…so practice here with me; it will prepare you for the test.” Of course, the next Monday I have some smart aleck come to me to say “Guess what we talked about on Saturday night, Mr. Smith!! Look! It’s in my text message history!” I’m convinced they all have the same deep and important thoughts; I just want to give them the words so they can articulate those thoughts.

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