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Truth, and especially religious truth, is one of God s greatest gifts to men. It is the nourishment of the intelligence, our highest faculty. The enlightenment of our minds was one of the chief functions of the Messias. "To preach the gospel to the poor He hath sent Me" (Luke iv. 18). "For this I came into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth" (John xviii. 37). There were three reasons for this.
1. As the uncreated Word of God, Our Lord is the repository of all truth. "In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. ii. 3).
2. Jesus is our chief Pontiff and Pastor, and has charge of us. To such it was said of old: "Son of man, I have made Thee a watch man of the house of Israel: and Thou shalt hear the word out of My mouth, and shalt tell it them from Me" (Ez. iii. 17).
3. His overflowing charity urges Him to communicate to us of His abundance, and make us sharers in His great perfection. The teachings of Our Lord were for all mankind. In the first instance, however, He communicated them to the Jews, according to the divine promise given to Abraham. It was through the medium of that nation that all the world was to be blessed by the communication of divine truth. When the Jews rejected that privilege, a faithful few were selected from them to transfer the great gift to the Gentiles. Take care to value the intellectual benefit of natural and supernatural truth preached to you by Our Lord. You have in Him an infallible Teacher who will not suffer you to go astray in any matter of real importance.
