The World We Don’t Want To See

By our very nature, people are looking for the truth.

We yearn for realization. We strive for it – whether we’re doing it consciously or somewhere down there without even realizing it.

Searching for Truth

We turn on the TV and we’re looking for the truth about the world and what’s going on around us. We shake our heads when something shocks us, or nod if someone confirms what we already know – or what we agree with.

We open a book and read. We seek the truth in stories, fictional, and real. We want to identify with heroes and learn something new about ourselves and others through them.

We meet people – at home, at work, with friends. We talk, we listen, and we reveal our opinions, insights, and ideas to each other. We discover fragments of truth about ourselves and listen carefully to what the other person will touch us with.

We want to meet God. We’d like to know more about why the world is the way it is, why it spins the way it does, what life is like, and what our place is in it.

We open the Bible and read the Word. We close our eyes and pray. We ask God for solutions, we ask him for help, for the resolution of the trouble we find ourselves in, and especially for the reason why this must have happened.

Can We Ever Know the Full Truth?

Writer E.A. Bucchianeri wrote,

“Truth and Wisdom are always attractive and beautiful even when they are not attractive and beautiful, or mankind would not be seeking them so much despite the harsh reality they portrayed at times.”

Of course, we’ll never know all the truth, at least as long as we’re on Earth. We’re just too limited. There are too many external and internal stimuli that move us back and forth and discourage us from penetrating deeper.

St. Paul also tells us as much in the First Letter to the Corinthians 13:12-13, saying,

“Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.”

Nevertheless, we look ahead because it is built into our nature. But we have an important challenge on this life-long adventure of searching.

Shutting Ourselves Off from the World

There’s another world that’s not so obvious. We can’t see it because we often don’t want to see it. This world is in the dark. That darkness is the second half of our lives, our existence, our essence, the other half of us.

There’s a child living in this world who’s scared and orphaned. This world is home to people who can’t seem to find the light. In this darkness are our hidden fears, repressed desires, and unfulfilled dreams. This is a world that lives its own life, in parallel with what we see on the surface.

We’re either running away from it or trying to hide from it because it causes us discomfort, pain, and stress.

So this is a world that often remains on edge. It takes a strong inner peace (and a great deal of humility) to enter it.

“The Night Is Bright as Day”

In our quest, we can be sincere and guarded, but if we do not descend into darkness, into the unknown, and do not explore this other reality, we deprive ourselves of many answers – even crucial answers, and perhaps for the great wealth that is meant for us.

King David wrote this in his beautiful psalm 139:7-12:

Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend to Heaven, thou art there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there!
If I take the wings of morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say, ‘Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night,’
Even the darkness is not dark to thee, for the night is bright as day; for darkness is as light with thee.”

We need to open the door and step outside, each of us to the best of their ability. Get out of the comfort zone. Get out of the safe chapel, into darkness – without fear of falling and getting dirty.

There will be completely new possibilities, new insights will come, a new world will open up and transform us into a new man, as St. Paul again tells us in the Letter to the Ephesians, 4:22-24:

“Put off your old nature, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”