Consecrated In Truth

" Lifting up His eye to heaven, Jesus prayed saying, ' When I was with them, I protected them in Your name. But now I am coming to You. I speak this in the world so that [the Apostles] may share my joy completely. I gave them Your Word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. Consecrate them in the Truth. Your Word is Truth. As You sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they may also be consecrated in Truth.' " -- [John 17:11B-19.]

I read this Scripture, and I wonder if anyone even knows what it means today?

First, I wonder if anyone knows what the word, "Consecrate" means? I myself had to look that one up!  It means, "Make holy."

Then, I read the word "Holy" -- and I ask, 'Is there anything Sacred today?'

Is a priest "holy" and sacred any longer? Or, do we scoff at what he says, and accuse him of being an "old white man?" An anachronism. Irrelevant to ordinary life.

Is even motherhood sacred? Or do too many women see creating life as messy, inconvenient and simply a burden of drudgery?

And the Truth? What passes for the Truth is only so much Spin. Pro-Choice? Commentators, who have said that Pro-Choice means Pro-Death, have been silenced, excoriated. We talk of "Surgical Strikes", "Drone Operations". By any other word, these are in Truth, war.

For decades, the Truth has been relative. Individualism trumps any sort of enduring Truth. We live in a world of Truth as concocted by humans. If anyone dares to say, "This is the Truth", others accuse the truth-seekers of dogmatism or worse. Our Truth is as varied as the human speaking it.

I lived in a household, as a child, where Lies were Truth; and Truth was a pack of Lies. I was told every day that I was ugly. In detail, I was told that my teeth were ugly, my nose was too long, my skin was too blemished, I wore glasses, my hair was too curly/too straight -[pick one].

I was told that I was a failure. [I was an A student].

I was told that I was a fool to believe in God. That Christians are losers.

I was told that any other ethnic group, but for ours, was inferior and worthless.

I was told that other people were stupid and common.

I was told that people who have a lot of money are superior and deserve more.

I was told not to give to charity, why waste your money on "those people".

AND yet, we called ourselves Christian!

After I left home, I met a lovely friend who actually talked to me kindly and cared about me. I told her how I thought I was ugly. She urged me to find a picture of myself as a child. I rummaged around and found some photos. I could not believe my eyes. I had been a beautiful child. "Hollywood beautiful" I was told, by another who glimpsed the photos. My friend told me that being called ugly was a Lie.

So I ran through the list with my friend-- "I am a failure"; my friend said, "A Lie.  "There is no God"; a Lie. "Christians are losers"; a Lie. "Others unlike me are inferior"; a Lie. "People are all stupid and common"; a Lie. "The wealthy are superior"; a Lie. "Giving to charity is a waste of money"; a Lie.

"ALL LIES", my friend said. She said, "Whoever says, 'I love God', but hates another is a liar." -[1 John: 4:20].

I KNEW these were all lies. I had known this for years. The more these lies were drummed into me, the worse I felt about myself. Once I heard the Truth, from a trusted friend, though, I felt immense relief, as if an unearthly burden had been mercifully lifted off my shoulders.

After awhile, I didn't even know what the Truth was any longer. What a horrible, traumatic way to live! Because, if up is down and black is white, and there is no Truth, there is no Reality, then the world becomes a House of Mirrors. Confusion and desperation set in. There is no floor and no ceiling, we are all just free-falling in a bleak world of utter darkness. Surrounded by Lies, we cannot even trust the person next to us!

I desperately need to find the Truth, and to try to live by the Truth, no matter how hard that may be. Otherwise, as Cole Porter said, in "Anything Goes",  "Now, God knows, anything goes. Good authors who once knew better words, now only use four letter words, writing prose. If me undressed you like, why, nobody will oppose. When every night the set that's smart is intruding at nudist parties in studios, anything goes. The world has gone mad today, and good's bad today, and black's white today, and day's night today. Anything goes."

AND SO -- What is the Truth? The Truth is God's Word. To Love one another as oneself. To seek the Fruits of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Forbearance [tolerance, patience], Kindness, Goodness, Faith, Gentleness and Self-Control. If we are not guided by the Spirit of Truth, we descend into immorality, impurity, idolatry, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, outburst of fury, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness.

The Truth is a whole lot more than simply not lying. It is all that is RIGHT about the world!

"I believe that unarmed [peaceful] Truth and unconditional Love will have the final word in Reality. That is why Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger that Evil." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.


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