Truth and Story

Today I heard for the first time a story about two characters named Truth and Story. It is a fascinating way to capture the way we are usually averse to being confronted by the cold, naked and harsh Truth, and may be better served by Truth wrapped in (a) Story. Story can attract more people to sit down with her, allowing her to impart Truth. Perhaps that is one reason why Jesus taught in parables in many instances, and why God became Man in the first place. It also suggests a similarity with the Old Testament notion of death at seeing God face to face, versus the intimate encounter with the Son of God in the flesh.

But I have recently been hearing this message, in prayer and reading, that my whole approach to sharing Truth has been harsh, cold, vulgar and .. ineffective. Sadly, my academic training has made it the typical approach I take, but as with my kids as with any, I must abandon it now, except in academic circles, I think.

Something else I learned in today's formation session (with the permanent diaconate programme) is that the sharing/preaching, while channeled through me, is about the Man, Jesus Christ. On the other hand, there is also the tension with not being dry and academic, so it must be human, if not personal (to me). This is an art I must learn, but perhaps it is both: it is about Christ and his expression and actions in my life. My life can be (not always) the Story that Truth is clothed in, and so God is clothed in my human story.