A Secular Path to Christian Truth

I am a Catholic professor teaching for more than two decades now in a state university where class lectures are expected to be secular and equitable. Since this is the case, the premise for any discussion should not at all be based then on one’s being Catholic. This hasn’t hindered me though to discuss things from a Catholic viewpoint, as long as this is presented as one possible viewpoint among many. Each time I end a lecture with students upholding or defending freedom in the human person and/or man’s openness to the splendor of truth and beauty leaves me grateful and fascinated. It is humbling to see Truth bear witness.

Allow me to share some pathways I have used for my classes. Some of these make use of quotations that come from Catholic writers but this doesn’t have to be the case. The two writers I will be citing next are neither Catholics, the first is a Jew, the second a Russian Orthodox. Both writers, however, show openness to the splendor of truth and have such a profound understanding of the human condition.

One pathway that I have used the longest would be the Polish writer Victor Frankl and his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. What makes the book ironic is that Frankl makes use of details in his experience of numerous atrocities in the concentration camp as means to affirm or confirm the freedom in man through meaning. The following lines are just among the many one finds in his book to convince the reader that although human beings are invariably shaped by their circumstances, “everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.”

“I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.”

“The last of human freedoms – the ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances”

Another pathway that I’ve used is Russian Orthodox writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his book Brothers Karamazov. Without any air of assertion, Dostoyevsky leads the reader to understand the frailty of the human condition and hence, to be kind in confronting weakness and, even, downfall. Dostoyevsky also portrays the capacity in man to transcend despite the given frailty of the human condition, to be noble despite want, and to remain steadfast amidst affliction, with God’s grace. Virtue attracts, and virtue relayed through Dostoyevsky’s lines is strong and even, contagious, to the reader.

“We don’t understand that life is heaven, for we have only to understand that and it will at once be fulfilled in all its beauty, we shall embrace each other and weep.”

“They suffer, of course… but then they live, they live a real life, not a fantastic one, for suffering is life. Without suffering what would be the pleasure of it?”

In all of Dostoyevsky’s works, human frailty and suffering are given. The capacity of man to be redeemed and to transcend his circumstance moves one to be noble, perhaps humbled, but just like Mary, stabat, remaining standing, strong, steadfast, at the foot of the cross. (Honey Libertine Achanzar-Labor, PhD)