Unified Truth

Hiking or climbing up to the top of a mountain on a clear day one is rewarded by a wonderful view. To the north and south, the east and west the landscape below presents itself.

Let us imagine for a moment that four people would climb the mountain, but each one of them would only look in one of the directions. What would they tell each other afterwards? Maybe the first one would say: “I saw a river flowing into the sea.” The second: “I saw the river, too, but you are quite wrong about the sea. You do not see it from the top of the mountain. There is a great city built on both banks of the river.”
Then the third one would speak up: “While you are both right about the river, otherwise you must be half-blind. The river runs through a vast plain. There is no sea nor city in sight. And finally the fourth one: “You are all either delusional or lying. All you can see from the top of the mountain are snow covered peaks, as far as the eye can see.” Every single one of these four people knows with absolute certainty what he saw, and that he is telling the truth, and yet, they will be unable to reconcile their differences.

This story says much about the state humanity is in nowadays. We are fighting endless wars about our opinions, our differences and about our varying perceptions of the world and the cosmos we are living in.

But just like there is only one landscape, there is also only one truth. Like the well-known experiment with the colour wheel, that, when spun fast enough, lets all colours appear as white, the one truth can appear in a thousand different shades of colour. We all see a different landscape. We all represent a different colour, but we can look beyond that to the representative of the white, of the one truth, Christ the great Unifier, who will bring us together in all our differences and in freedom. Who will help us to perceive the truth behind all opinions and appearances.

The 13th century poet Rumi expresses this with following words: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.”

This contemplation by Rev. Contreras is inspired by Christ as the being of Truth