The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

06-22-2025Pastor's CornerFr. Bob Deehan

Recently, I came across a short video on YouTube that looked and sounded like Pope Leo, but after checking its authenticity, it turns out to be an AI generated clip. This is just one example of how many of us can be deceived when people and organizations disseminate deceptive messages, untruths, or half-truths to advance their own agenda. It can cause you and I to be suspicious of just about everything we see, hear, and read these days.

It’s vital to examine the source, and to think critically about its message. Compounding that kind of manipulation, unfortunately, is that some in leadership among us deliberately deny the obvious, dismiss or skew facts, make outrageous exaggerations and are allowed to get away with it. Many people have become use to it and have chalked it up to a quirk of personality or merely a joke. But, is it? When fundamental standards about meaning what you say and saying what you mean are put into question, we run the risk not only of confusion but it opens the door to distrust and potentially, to anarchy. When truth is undermined, trust is undermined. When we cannot trust a person or institution to speak and live by the truth, chaos results, anything goes, and deception and falsehood become a new norm. Suspicion and fear take over.

Part of Jesus’ mission on earth was as a bearer of truth. While being questioned by Pontius Pilate, we hear Jesus say in the Gospel of John, “… I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” Are you “of the truth?” The sad reality is that there are times in our lives when we can have a very casual relationship with the truth, even when we may not lie outright, but remain silent and refuse to speak the truth. Truth has become relative – dependent on one’s own opinion or perspective. What’s wrong can be right. With that interpretation of truth, there is no moral norm. What’s needed in our day is a steadfast commitment to heed the voice of Jesus who has come to bear witness to the truth. Let’s pray for ourselves and for those around us – to courageously speak the truth and live by the truth even when the tide is against us. For our future as a civilization depends on upholding the truth.