When we experience a setback how many times do we hear a friend who’s found something positive in the situation say: “At least one consolation is…..”? Consolation – such a lovely word. Its Latin roots are con (with) and solacium (soothing relief or comfort in time of distress). To console then is to share reassurance.
An expression one hears today less frequently than a few generations ago is the consolation of Truth. As the seemingly endless barrage of unsettling news roils our personal tranquility and faddish philosophies threaten our sanity perhaps we should meditate on this salubrious phrase. To be sure, many among us practice this. Others of us however eschew it.
One sometimes sees the words Truth, Beauty and Goodness grouped in poetic linkage. These are the celestial triumvirate that encircles the throne of God. This trinity of powers manifests the unity of the eternal Power, a Power infinitely capable and provident. Truth along with its celestial partners is not simply responsive or passive for not only can we approach it in time of distress, it initiates and actively reaches out to us. Allied with Goodness and Beauty, Truth teaches, guides and reveals ordered reason. In doing so it engenders in us the comforting reassurance of the dignity of purpose.
Those of us who dismiss the consolation of Truth as irrelevant, or worse fictional, impoverish ourselves. We fail to realize or refuse to acknowledge that its existence does not depend on our recognition and that if we do not acknowledge it our humanity is only ‘minimally charged’. With or without us Truth is real, but to benefit us we have to respect it. This is often difficult. Here is where many of us cheat ourselves, or more probably allow ourselves to be cheated by the fleeting and hollow mores of our time. Nihilism, materialism, relativism –false substitutes that they are-are perilously seductive. How easily they blind us to Beauty, deter us from Goodness, and deafen us to Truth! One need merely to glance at the always “breaking news” in our daily news casts or the increasingly aggressive advertising in our media to witness how many of us are leading pointless and directionless lives.
Just as Goodness exceeds laws and Beauty defies description Truth far exceeds dogma which it may inspire but by which it cannot be contained. As with the pursuit of Goodness and of Beauty, similarly the search for Truth is an always unfolding journey. No matter how rocky the path, voyagers who follow it – because of their conviction of its destination – are never daunted by the challenges it presents. What’s more, as the prefix con to the word consolation suggests, the solace they experience is a shared reality. They travel not alone but in the companionship of Truth.
The consolation of Truth is an awareness. NCCF recognizes in the donors we serve this same compelling awareness. It prompts their philanthropy. For us It is a privilege to collaborate with them and to know that in spite of the challenges our world faces they are guided and strengthened by the timeless consolation of Truth.