THIS is the challenge we all have to face if we truly want
to follow Christ. We have to try our best to know how to blend the
inclusivity of charity and the exclusivity of truth.
We know that charity has a universal coverage, such that
we are even commanded to love our enemies. It’s very inclusive. But
truth always sets boundaries between what is true and real, and what
is false and fake. It’s quite exclusive.
Blending charity and truth definitely is no easy task to
carry out. It also involves the issue of how to blend mercy and
justice. But difficult or impossible as they seem to be, we just have
to do them, because they, in the end, are what are truly proper to us
as persons and children of God.
We just have to live with the reality that what is simply
expected of us is to try our best to approximate the ideal blend. That
blend will never be perfect in this world, in the sense that it would
not need any more perfection. It will always be in a condition of
ongoing perfectibility.
In the end, it will be God, as shown and revealed to us by
Christ, who will make things perfect. Ours is simply to go along with
God’s ways as best that we could. On our own, we cannot, and we are
not expected, to perfect the blend between charity and truth. The
mysteries and the intangibles involved in this task of blending
charity and truth, mercy and justice, are just too much for us to
handle perfectly.
But that impossibility of achieving the perfect blend
should not stop us from trying. We just have to be willing to go
through what Christ went through in saving us. He preached the truth
about everything, he did a lot of wonderful things, but in the end, he
had to assume all the sins of men by suffering and dying on the cross,
and all the while offering forgiveness to everyone, including those
who crucified him.
Christ in consummating his redemptive work did not leave a
perfect world. The world continues to have its imperfection, and but
it now has the capability of being perfected. And that capability is
given to us by Christ himself, if we truly follow him and identify
ourselves with him.
Thus, we have to learn how to be magnanimous, patient,
strong, etc. We should not be easily scandalized by sin, even those
committed by people whom we consider to know better. We have to learn
how to suffer. And we have to convince ourselves that it is only with
Christ that we can blend the inclusive charity and the exclusive
truth, the magnanimity of mercy and the fairness of justice.
We also have to realize that only in Christ can we
properly make, understand and apply our human laws. It is only with
him that charity blends with truth in a dynamic and not frozen, static
way. Only with him can mercy and justice be achieved.
In other words, for us to properly blend charity and
truth, mercy and justice, it is not enough to be intellectually
prepared and with significant experience in the field to boot. It is
indispensable that we live a genuine piety where our relationship with
Christ is intimate, deep and strong.