By Mark Azzara
Dear Friend,
I received an automated email from The New York Times offering a discount on subscriptions, with bold text proclaiming: “Truth. It demands your support.” You can’t argue with The Times on that one. But what really caught my eye in The Times’ email was the subject line: “The truth is what we do better.”
The Times is guilty of double-speak. On the one hand it states an unequivocal truth; on the other, it arrogantly claims to set the standard for truth.
But more importantly, the email makes an inspired distinction between “Truth” (capital T) and “The truth” (lower-case t). In spiritual terms there’s a huge difference. Capital-T Truth is a name; lower-case-t truth is a thing, a mere noun. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life” – i.e., this is who he is, not merely what he is interested in. Truth is another name for Jesus.
Humans have a penchant for stripping a word of its power and true meaning simply by lower-casing it and thus implying it’s something we can perceive and thus control. But if Truth is – i.e., if Truth exists, independent of us – then we are presumptuous to think we can reduce it to an intellectual or mental concept that we can grasp.
All of us, myself included, should remember there is only so much the human mind can comprehend, let alone convey. To put it another way: we’re not God. And humility demands that we acknowledge and “support” this capital-T Truth.
All God’s blessings – Mark
