Luceat!

Today, I was reading the correspondence section in First Things Magazine. I was intrigued by those responding to George Weigel’s recent essay on the just war theory that had appeared a few months before in First Things. I found myself in the midst of war of words that instead of seeking truth and patriotism, attacked, in a personal way, the rationality and love of country of both Weigel and President Bush. I can’t speak for President Bush intentions for entering into war with Iraq, nor do I desire to start a debate on Just War Theory, but to bring back to mind the ideas of freedom and truth that our country was found on.
What does it mean to be free?

…to say whatever you want? No! Freedom is the ability to do what is good and true. It is the ability to know what is true and abide in it. We are not free when we act from our passions before our intellect, whether that is in playing sports or during an intellectual debate. We are free when we possess the virtues of self-mastery and humility.
We live in a prideful generation where the “god we trust” is our very self. With pride, we begin to think that our own inclinations and feelings must be true and don’t open ourselves up to the adventure of reason, which is the human gift which leads us to know truth. When we trust in ourselves more than we trust our Creator, we begin to go off-track in our pursuit of truth, because our foundation of thought is cracked or even broken.
I would never discourage intellectual debate, in fact I promote it. What I do encourage is the pursuit of truth during such endeavors. We can not hold fast to our own opinions if they are simply opinions, but must be compelled by the pursuit of what is true and when presented with this truth, our minds become transformed. “Do not be conformed to world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may proof what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12:2)