“For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37)
Jesus testifies to the truth, and those who are committed to the truth listen to what he says. But before Jesus testifies to the truth, he listens to the truth: “I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me.” (John 8:28) So Jesus listens and then speaks.
And Jesus is our example for listening and speaking. He is our model for what it means to be truly human as God created us to be. We, like Jesus, are to listen to “the Father.” We are to live from the source of our being. And then we are to testify to what we receive. In a world of lies and deceit, we are to testify to the truth.
Of course, that means that we have to turn from lies and deceit to the truth. Above all, we have to turn from the fundamental lie of our human condition, the lie that denies our creatureliness, that would have us operate as if we were the source of our existence—as if we could come up with our identity apart from God.
Jesus calls us back to reality, to the source of our true selves that is never far away. God is near and the word of truth is near. It is, as Saint Paul reminds us, on our lips and in our hearts, when lips and hearts are surrendered to God, when we worship in spirit and in truth and are open to the Spirit of truth. And “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 16:13) The Spirit guides us into who we are to be and what we are to do.
In a world that is deceived about our essential selves and callings, we are sent to be witnesses. We are to testify to what we hear, we who are growing into listeners of the truth. In this way, we are light in the darkness. It is a high calling, being listeners and testifiers to the truth. It is a calling we receive in Christ. As we are conformed to the one who is the Listener and Testifier, we become listeners and testifiers.
Our world, our society, needs those who receive and declare truth, the truth of being human and being community—the truth that demands the commitment of our whole selves, the commitment to love and have compassion for one another, to live as one humanity in God, sharing in all of creation’s oneness with God.
Our societies and the world need the witness of those who receive the Spirit’s guidance for the situations of our time and for the unfolding future, people who hear what the Spirit is declaring in the present. The world needs to hear something other than that which comes from the political and moral ideologies of our time or from the entrenched ways of a false humanity that operates as if it were its own source of being.
Gracious God, give us eyes to see and ears to hear. And then give us the courage to speak and to act in this time in which we live.