Go easy with opinions

I have just finished reading a book about Pope Benedict XVI. I prefer not to mention the title or the author. I just want to highlight the need to go easy with opinions, because while they will always have some grain of truth, they most likely don’t have it all.

The book was written by a journalist covering the Vatican beat. There’s some understandable hype used in promoting the book which should be taken with a grain of salt.

I understand that being a journalist, the author tends to say a lot of details, going to the minutiae of the issues, extracting insights here and there, not shy from interpolating and extrapolating things in an effort to grab attention and weave interest in the process. Everyone deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt that what he is doing is for the common good.

I am, of course, thankful for the enlightening details and the engaging style, but I was a bit annoyed when theological issues were treated more like political or social issues or matters of merely human interest. This is where I thought some overstepping was committed.

When opinions and speculations are treated like infallible doctrine, matters of faith as if they are just personal views of the Pope, when secrets of office are divulged indiscriminately to the public, when worldly standards are used to assess spiritual and supernatural realities, that’s when I start feeling uneasy.

While opinions, views, speculations, guesses, etc., have their legitimate places in our continuing public discourse, we should also know when, how, where and to whom to address them. There’s such thing as propriety.

Besides, when commenting on Church issues and matters of religion, I suppose one just cannot be a mere journalist or social observer. He has to have a good grounding on theology and philosophy, a good understanding of the spiritual and supernatural realities. He has to be properly prepared and equipped.

How can he make a good commentary if he does not have a good understanding of the material he is commenting about, or if he is ignorant if not averse to spiritual and supernatural realities?

In these areas, things do not depend on whether the majority of the people believe in them or not. In these areas, things depend on whether they are what God wants, what the Spirit says and shows. We just have to learn how to discern that. One simply has to have an active spiritual life more than just a working intelligence.

And so we should not insist so much when we are presenting opinions only, nor should we be gullible when considering them. Just take it easy. That’s a friendly advice which I consider to be most relevant these days as we wade through all sorts of views and opinions amid the quickening, dizzying and confusing pace of world developments.

In the first place, we have to distinguish between mere opinion and absolute truth. I’m afraid many people today do not make such distinction anymore. To them, everything seems to be opinion. There are no absolute truths.

This cannot be. It would be like drifting in an ocean without a sure guide and without stability that way. We would be most vulnerable to disorder and chaos. Sense of direction and meaning in life would erode if not vanish completely. That’s why we make some laws, no matter how imperfect they are, to avoid these dangers.

But there also are a few who think practically everything has to be taken as absolute truth. In their mindset, even lifestyles, cultures, artistic tastes, etc., have to be taken in rigid, monolithic uniformity. They cannot countenance variety of views and endure plurality of positions. Funny as this may sound, we can still see people of this mould around.

This is where we can have people who are usually described as fundamentalists, fanatics, ultra-conservatives, traditionalists, etc.

In short, we should not deny the need for opinions and for absolute truths. What we have to avoid is to fall into extremes. Our human nature and condition demand that we need both of them in their proper order.

Our spiritual character by definition orients us toward absolute truth, while our material dimension involves us into the changing and fluid dynamics of our earthly life.

But even in our adherence to the absolute truth, we cannot be rigid, especially if we follow closely the example of Christ who is actually “the way, the truth and the life” for us. Christ was open to anything while pursuing the Father’s will.