What is truth? When Jesus stood before Pilate and told him that he had come to testify to the truth, Pilate famously retorted: âWhat is truth?â Interestingly, in the Koine Greek of John 14:6, Jesus refers to himself as áŒÎ»ÎźÎžÎ”Îčα (aletheia, truth).
âI am the way, the truth (aletheia), and the life.â
Aletheia is the opposite of Lethe, the river of oblivion flowing through Hell. The prefix âa-â is a negation. Thus, truth is that which that negates oblivion. Lethe concealsâaletheia reveals. Lethe makes us forgetâaletheia makes us remember. Aletheia un-conceals.
Aletheia is the unconcealment of what is hiddenânot merely a set of propositions. Thatâs what Jesus calls himself: the unconcealment of Being.
Truth is the disclosure of Beingânot sentences or propositions. Incidentally, for Heidegger, aletheia is the moment when beings âcome into the open.â When beings come into the open, they disclose Being. They reveal. Truth is revelation.
âEveryone is the other and no one is himself.â Heidegger
Until we come into the open, we are not ourselves; we are someone else. We live in concealmeant, hiding Being. Yet, our false self is transientâit will be consumed by Lethe. Everything that does not reveal Being will be forgotten. To rise above Lethe, we must embrace aletheiaâthe unconcealment of Being.
This is what Jesus meant when he told Pilate that he had come âto testify to the truth.â He was aletheiaâthe perfect unconcealment of Being. To be true is to participate in something that survives Lethe. Pilate was too steeped in the temporal and transient to recognize Being before his eyes.
âYes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!â Rev. 14:13
Whatever we have done within chronological time to transcend chronological time abides forever. It follows us. It has been salvaged from Lethe. It is aletheia. It cannot disappear. As Michelangelo said,
âThe true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.â
In aletheia, we transform shadows into glimpses of divine perfection. These glimpses cannot disappear. We make âin the law in which we were madeââto borrow Tolkienâs phrase. We become sub-creators.
Having glimpsed divine perfection, we reproduce itâwe unconceal itâwithin the confines of our shadow world. The only way to salvage the world of shadows from falling into oblivion is to transcend the shadowsâengage in aletheia.
Whether we bake bread, write articles, share a conversation over a cup of tea, build cathedrals, or repair carsâif we glimpse and reflect the divine spark in what we do, we participate in the unconcealment of Being. In doing so, we transcend the shadowlands.
Everything in the shadowlands is a shadow until we see through it and partake of divine perfection. It is our inheritance by virtue of divine birth. We have that spark in us. We are that spark. We are shadows transcending ourselves by pursuing aletheiaâevery moment of the day.
The French philosopher Paul RicĆur pointed out that, for the last two centuries, philosophy has been developing in the mode of suspicion. âPhilosophers of suspicionâ like Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud, argue that when you believe you are acting for certain reasons, you often fail to realize that your actions are driven by hidden forces.
Marx suspected that all human actions were driven by economics, Nietzsche by the will to power, and Freud by the unconscious.
In other words, when you act a certain way, you may think you have clear reasons for acting this way, but in reality, you do it because of
1) economic conditions,
2) desire for power,
3) unconscious drives.
Philosophers of suspicion have led us to believe that thinking must be rooted solely in suspicion.
âWhat do we mean by âhermeneutics of suspicionâ? This school of interpretation involves a radical critique of consciousness, an effort to unmask the hidden meanings behind the apparent ones. It is a mode of interpretation pioneered by Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, each of whom tried to expose the illusions of consciousness and reveal the structures of power, desire, and the unconscious that lie beneath.â Paul RicĆur
Thereâs nothing wrong with hermeneutics of suspicion as such. It is true that some human actions are driven by economics, some by the will to power, and some by the unconscious. But not allâand not always.
Paul RicĆur contrasts âhermeneutics of suspicionâ with âhermeneutics of trust.â Instead of deconstructing someoneâs meaning, he suggests assuming that there is one and seeking to recover it.
âTo interpret is to render near what is far, to appropriate what is strange, to make oneâs own what was initially alien. Interpretation, then, is guided by a âwill to trust.ââ
âThe witness testifies to an event which has touched him or her deeply, physically or morally. As such, testimony is more than a recounting of facts; it is an expression of responsibility, a call to remembrance and a summons to the ethical imperative of remembering.â (Memory, History, Forgetting)
A personâs actions may be motivated by economics, the will to power, or unconscious drives, but my goal in meeting them is to become a witnessing presence to encounter something wonderful. I become a witness because my primary motivation is to encounter a witnessâsomeone so full of wonder that you canât miss it.
The Greek word for âwitnessâ is ÎŒÎŹÏÏÏ Ï (martys), from which we derive the word âmartyr.â In ancient times, a martyr was seen as the ultimate witness. Martyrs witness to Wonder so profoundly that you canât help seeing it. Wonder is contagious. You read it off their faces. Their faces testify that they are above economics, the will to power, or unconscious drives.
Philosophy of suspicion cannot survive in the presence of a true witness. A true witness turns you into a witness too. As Wonder passes from one person to another, suspicion dies. When you see wonder in the eyes of a martyr, you stop seeking âexplanationsâ for their behavior. You simply stand there, stock still, smitten by the âwill to trust.â
As the Roman centurion exclaimed, âTruly this man was the Son of God!â
You are not naiveâyou know that at a certain level, a personâs actions may be caused by economics, the will to power, or unconscious drives. But not now. Not when you see âthat.â When you see that, you donât interpret. All hermeneutics ceasesâyou simply witness. You feel touched, moved. There is nothing in your mind except âthe ethical imperative of remembering.â
Why did Tolkien like trees? Trees are fascinating â they grow upward and downward simultaneously. Their root system, if the soil is deep enough, resembles the way the branches grow.
The tree stretches itself both up and down at the same time. The more grounded it is, the more it stretches its hands to the Sun. The more it stretches its hands to the Sun, the more grounded it is.
The symbolism of the tree is vast and manifold. Ultimately, the tree is an image of who we are. We have two legs to stand firmly on the ground and two hands to reach to the Sun. J.R.R. Tolkien, a great lover of trees, captured this symbolism in Galadrielâs strange gift to Sam â a seed of the mallorn-tree.
Sam was the gardener. He was âdown to earth.â A perfect helper for Frodo, he could always return him to sanity. Hobbits represent rootedness. They lived in the roots of the trees where they dug their smials. After living in the roots for centuries, they became rooted in the soil. They were, so to say, the roots of the world.
And yet, Sam yearned to see the Elves. He was rooted and grounded and yet, his hands spread out to the Sun. The more you are rooted, the more you grow. He was down to earth, and yet his soul longed for the lofty beauty of the Elves. The Elves of LothlĂłrien lived in the trees. Thatâs where they built their houses with flets. They lived among the branches and the leaves. They were in touch with the beauty of heaven.
Galadriel knew that Shire would soon be uprooted, so she gave Sam the undying symbol of new hope. The mallorn tree was a symbol of both rootedness and loftiness. In it, the hobbits met with the Elves. Sam and his descendants would live in the roots, but they would always look up at the tree top waving in the wind and think of the beauty of LothlĂłrien.
Galadriel gave Sam the gift of himself. He was the mallorn-tree. Rooted in the soil, he yearned for the skies.
âHe [Sam] took the seed in his hand, and looked at it with wonder. âThis is a gift from the Lady Galadriel,â he said. âA piece of the tree of LothlĂłrien, a piece of the Elves, and of her grace. A thing that might grow into a living memory of a land that was once so beautiful. I will plant it in the Party Field where the old tree stood.ââ
We are all trees. We have a dual nature. We are from the earth, and we are from heaven. We are hobbits and Elves at the same time. We live on the Vine that grows up to the sky. We are its branches. Our roots go down into the earth, and our hands reach up to the Sun. No wonder on many medieval frescoes, Christ was depicted as a Vine with disciples sitting on its branches. We are the Tree as we participate in the great Vine, which is the Tree of Life.
What is Satan’s plan for deceiving people? I remember watching a lecture on YouTube by a KGB professor who taught a class on how world elites rule over societies.
He said, âImagine there is a truth and a lie. Itâs a huge mistake to place common people between the truth and a lie and let them decide which is which. The truth will always prevail. It is too self-evident. The way to rule the masses is to always keep people between two lies.â
When you keep people between two lies, they will be distracted enough not to see the truth. They will split into two groups and start fighting each other. Each group will clearly see the lie of the other. Neither will see their own. Human nature is such that people never see problems with their own position but always find fault with the opposite one.
When I heard that, I thought, âHow viciously insightful! If it isnât the very definition of diabolos, I donât know what is.â In Greek, diabolos means âthe one who throws apart.â The devil invents two lies and places people in between them. The more we stare at the lies (which always contain some truth), the more we are drawn apart.
The devil keeps fanning into the flame and polarizing people until they start demonizing each other. When people fight, they are too distracted to see the truth. All they think about is how wrong the other side is. This is the best scenario for ruling over the masses. They will want a ruler.
St. Augustine said,
âThe truth is like a lion; you donât have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.â
According to the KGB professor, it is a grave mistake to place people between the truth and a lie. The truthfulness of the truth is too obvious to miss. It doesnât need any defending. When you see it, you know it. Seeing is enough. Thatâs why the devilâs goal is never to let people see it.
Truth is too obvious to miss. When you see it, you know it. Itâs not propositional â it doesnât require proof. Itâs experiential â you simply encounter it. When you encounter it, you can either embrace it or turn away. But you canât help recognizing it. Thatâs why when the devil tries to trap Jesus into taking sides, he always refuses. Truth doesnât get polarized.
When people encounter Jesus, they forget about their differences and see the truth about themselves. âIs it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?â If Jesus had taken sides, he would have lost. He answered in such a way that everyone was lost. He left them dumbfounded, âHm⊠what belongs to Caesar and what to God?â
The issue of whether to pay taxes to Caesar or not was not the real issue. These were the two lies people were placed between. Neither was right. The real issue was that they couldnât see in their hearts what belonged to Caesar and what to God. If they could, they wouldnât have been polarized.
When we encounter the Truth, we quickly realize,
âLet God be true, but every man a liar.â
As John of the Cross said,
âIn the divine union, all contraries are reconciled, and the soul experiences the peace that comes from the resolution of all opposites.â
The devil creates a strong illusion of seeming contradictions. He places us between two opposites, and we think they are absolute. We donât see the Absolute. When we encounter the Absolute, all opposites are resolved instantly. We know it by the peace we feel.
âLove⊠binds all things together in perfect unity.â
