In Search of Comfort? Or Truth?

Fallible Blogma - Matthew Warner

The truth may hurt, but it beats the lies.  Matthew Warner over at Fallible Blogma oft presents gems for us to ponder.  Here is his latest.

The Catholic Church holds the entire truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is not comfortable to be a Catholic at this or any other time, particularly if you actually believe what the Church teaches.  The Church is being attacked from inside as much as from outside, and the sins of a few, particularly lately the sexual sins of priests and religious who abused their vows and those in their charge make for a bandwagon that those who hate the Church can jump on, with all kinds of neat, though often irrelevant platitudes and opinions.  But, no matter how sinful we are does not dim the light of truth that exists in the Church.

That's not a picture of me, BTW.

“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.” – C. S. Lewis

This is a long time favorite quote of mine. But it jumped out at me again recently after writing the post last week on the unfortunate popularity of the “prosperity gospel.”


If I look for truth, I may find comfort – but I may not. Life is not about being comfortable. It’s about pressing forward out of my comfort zone. It’s about getting up everyday and accepting whatever challenge I am faced with, staying faithful to the truth and allowing the suffering I endure to be joined with Christ’s to receive grace and complete my sanctification. That’s how we make the most of our life.

If you look around at the majority of things in our culture, however, we see the opposite. We run from our suffering in search of ultimately unsatisfying remedies, quick fixes and distractions that all seek comfort ahead of truth. And then we wonder why we have so much soft soap, wishful thinking and despair.