The Perspective of Justice

The Innermost Truth

“I am the Lord and there is no other, there is no God besides me.”

The god that we make of power, the domination of others and the exercise of control over their lives, is a false god. 

The god that we make of possessions, the accumulation of wealth far beyond that required for a dignified life, is a false god. 

The god that we make of pleasure and comfort, soothing our senses with physical satisfaction and enjoyment, is a false god. 

The god that we make of security, lulling us to sleep in the midst of a world filled with chaos and turmoil, is a false god. “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.” What is God’s is the only place as God, and so we “give the Lord glory and honor. We who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ know that all the gods of the nations are things of naught,” and so we reject the false gods of power, possessions, pleasure, and security. We place all our hope in the “almighty and ever-living God” who is “our source of power and inspiration.”

Since it has been entrusted to the Church to reveal the mystery of God, who is the ultimate goal of man, she opens up to man at the same time the meaning of his own existence, that is, the innermost truth about himself. The Church truly knows that only God, whom she serves, meets the deepest longings of the human heart, which is never fully satisfied by what this world has to offer.

Vatican II, Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World, 1965:41  

Gerald Darring

**From Saint Louis University