Truth and Power – A Reflection

As I continue to watch events in Ukraine unfold I am in awe of the Ukrainian people as they stand up to a lying bully. Putin’s “reality” (I use that term very loosely) boggles my mind. As a student of history, I am gobsmacked that he would call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a Nazi. He is Jewish and his grandfather was killed by the Nazi’s during the Holocaust. The fact that a sizable number of people and politicians in this country support Putin and his lies while calling themselves “patriots” is mind boggling and breaks my heart.

I often wonder what Thomas Merton would have to say about what is going on today in the church, politics, and culture of this country and world. While he spiritually and literally carried the weight and the sorrow of the world in his own spirit and in his own prayers. The following quote is from a sermon he preached on The Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

One of the great deficits, weaknesses and or problems of society is the weakening of the sense of truth. What has weakened the sense of truth is the struggle for power. The unrestrained will to power which is characteristic of our age today. The will to power where will suppresses truth instead of following truth. We live in an age where men manufacture their own truth. What’s not important is truth but the favorable image is what makes other people’s will go in the direction of your power. (Sermon on The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 12/8/62, audio recording)

Lord, in the midst of all of this chaos in the world, in the nation, and in the church, I pray that the truth of your love, your justice, your mercy, and your peace will flow down like Amos’s ever-flowing stream. Dona Nobis Pacem et in Terra… grant us peace in this troubled world. Amen.

A wee reflection and prayer for peace from your Padre…