Nothing is more interesting in our social scene than to see how often those who boast of an "open mind" end with a closed one. People with an infernal pride will sometimes take the lowest places in order to attract attention; so often those who boast that their minds are in a state of suspension until they find truth are often those who are most impervious to it. The open mind is commendable when it is open like a road that leads to a city which is its destination. But the open mind is condemnable when it is like an abyss or a manhole. Those who boast of their open-mindedness are invariably those who love to search for truth but not to find it; they love the chase but not the capture; they admire the footprints of truth, but not catching up with it. They go through life talking about "widening the horizons of truth" but without ever seeing the sun.

The discovery of truth can be very embarrassing. For example, to awaken at night to discover that we are really very selfish and egotistic. Truth brings with it great responsibilities; that is why so many keep their hands open to welcome it, but never close them to grasp it. The real thinker who is willing to embrace a truth at all costs generally has double price to pay - first, isolation from current opinion or the mass mind. Any one who arrives at the moral conclusion that divorce prepares the way for the breakdown of civilization must be prepared to be ostracized by the Herods and the Salomes of this world. Non-conformity with the mass mind can be expected to bring down the offender's head opposition and ridicule. Second, those who discover a truth must stand naked before the uplifted stroke of its duties or else take up the cross that it imposes.

These two effects of embracing truth, one negative which is opposition, the other positive, which is the burden of the new idea, make many people fearful. In their cowardice, they keep their minds "open" so they will never have to close on anything that would entail responsibility, duty, moral correction or altered behaviour.

This is the reason. The "open" mind does not want truth because truth implies duty. A farmer's son will avoid passing the woodpile because he knows if he passes it,he ought to bring in some firewood to his mother. That truth creates a duty which he wishes to avoid. Responsibility is the one thing the "open mind" is most anxious. Avoiding truth is only negative; people cannot long endure in that attitude. So they seek about for something which will completely relieve them from responsibility. The avoidance of responsibility, though, only results in tyranny, the abdication of one's free will to another, whether it be to an ideology or a dictator. The only real solution is for those with "open minds" to close on truth, even though it does involve a change in behaviour, for ultimately it is truth, and only truth, which can make them free.

BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN ( 1895-1979 )

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -