2023-08-06 08:31:00
August 6, 2023 / 1:31 am
This Sunday, August 6, 2023, marks three decades since the publication of the encyclical the brightness of truth of Saint John Paul II, a document that presents “a solution to relativism: the encounter and following of Christ”.
This is what the Adjunct Professor of Moral Theology at the University of Navarra, Fr. Hélio Luciano, affirms in response to some questions from ACI Prensa, to which he adds: “It is only the encounter with Christ [el] that allows the person to find the deepest truth about himself and understand that it is only realized in the total surrender of himself”.
In this sense, the chapter dedicated to martyrdom in the magisterial document is clairvoyant, since “this relationship is so fundamental to human life that, in order to maintain this relationship, we can even allow others to take away our earthly life”, points out Fr. Luciano.
For this reason, he stresses, “the only thing that makes man real” from the moral point of view “is the incarnation of his life in the truth of relational love.”
For his part, the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Theology of the San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University, Fr. Juan de Dios Larrú, explains on this matter that The splendor of truth it offers “a balanced relationship between freedom and law, conscience and truth, fundamental choice and concrete acts”.
For Larrú, “the reaffirmation of the existence of intrinsically bad acts” contained in the document “acquires a singular value in the context of generalized relativism”, since it forms part of the “good news that the Church is called to communicate to man in every time”.
current validity
Father Larrú affirms that The splendor of truth has a message of “profound relevance” in view of the confirmation that “our society and the Church have taken a path of increasing moral decadence.”
Since the central message of the text is that “following Christ is the foundation of Christian morality”, this implies a “vital configuration with Him” and, therefore, “a concrete way of inhabiting the world”.
From this perspective, “an adequate conception of autonomy” can be appreciated, which starts from recognizing that the human being is created: “his creatureliness leads him to recognize a bond of love with God the creator and with other men,” he adds.
For his part, Fr. Luciano explains that “in the moral field we can always better understand our relationship with God, which is realized in our concrete life.” In this sense, he affirms: “In this way, it does not seem to me that The splendor of truth should be the final framework of this understanding”.
However, he agrees with the San Dámaso expert in its current value due to its “balance between the subjective and objective dimensions of moral understanding”, since “the temptation to seek an objectivist legalism” is still present.
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In addition, and “perhaps more frequently” — continues Fr. Luciano — “subjectivism, which separates moral behavior from the objective relationship with someone —the person of Christ— is spreading as a way of seeking tranquility from the consciences, but without a deep relationship with the truth”.
A “reconcile” document
the encyclical The splendor of truth it was published 30 years after the Second Vatican Council, but it is closely related to it. In those years, he asked himself to elaborate “a more theological, more scientific, and more positive moral theology,” Fr. Larrú points out.
However, the renewal of this field “from a more biblical and Christocentric vision encountered numerous obstacles.” Thus, Saint John Paul II tried to “repropose the moral message of the Council” and gave legitimacy to the metaphysical and biblical perspectives of the following of Christ “which reaches its culmination in martyrdom.”
Indeed, during the Second Vatican Council, two currents on moral theology were fighting: objectivist rigorism and situational subjectivism, for which reason no specific document was published in this regard, as explained by Fr. Luciano.
Only 30 years later, and after devoting the first years of his pontificate to rebuilding “a theological anthropology based on the truth of creation”, the Polish Pope published this document.
The specialist from the University of Navarra therefore considers that The splendor of truth it is “the conciliar document on the understanding of moral life”.
Nicolás de Cárdenas is a Spanish journalist specialized in socio-religious information. Since July 2022 he is a correspondent for ACI Prensa in Spain.
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