Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Wisdom Ancient and Timely

St. Polycarp, an early Christian bishop, says that God is the one “who sees all things as they really are.”

I’m struck by that phrase because I think a lot that goes on around us has nothing to do with things as they really are, but, instead, things as we’d like them to be or things we’d like to fool others into believing are true.

But the fact of the matter is, none of us sees the “whole truth.” We are limited in our knowledge and judgment, and it takes humility to forgo saying “This is the way things are” and say instead, “This is what I see. What do you see?

If we can’t do that, then we can’t engage in dialogue with others and our own lives suffer as a result. They become narrow and we don’t let ourselves grow from encountering new people or new ideas. We get into a rut and, as one person put it: the difference between a rut and a grave are just the dimensions.

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