Is It Truth or Sophistry?

Melanie Jean Juneau- Sophistry

\"Melanie

Years ago, I was washing up some pots, just before dinner, when all of a sudden a word popped into my head, seemingly out of nowhere. I turned around and blurted out to my kids, who were doing homework around the kitchen table,“Sophistry! The word that keeps coming to me is sophistry.”

Of course, everyone burst out laughing because no one had a clue what I was talking about, or what that word even meant.

The word sophistry describes language and logic used by Satan, in Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. Sophistry could describe the logic used by a lawyer intent upon persuading a jury to find a criminal not guilty. When the intent of words is not to reveal the truth but to confuse people, the speaker is using sophistry. Sophistry is all too common in our society, from the world of politics to the world of advertising. Modern man uses words to influence people for their own purposes.

Just the other day, the word sophistry popped into my head again because we often resort to sophistry without realizing exactly what we are doing. Words often keep us running in circles and keep us from discovering freedom and truth. Thank God for the power of the Holy Spirit. The word of God cuts through sophistry like a two-edged sword.

My only hope of living in reality, to cut through lies, to see myself  and others in  truth and to embrace truth is by embracing the Word made flesh. Sometimes I might think that I am in the truth or that I am ruthlessly speaking the stark truth to another, but if I do not speak with Love, it is still sophistry –  a truth without love seeks to destroy.

Only God and those who carry the Love of God can speak a liberating truth that heals and sets free.

© 2014. Melanie Jean Juneau. All rights reserved.

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5 thoughts on “Is It Truth or Sophistry?”

  1. Your words – “Thank God for the power of the Holy Spirit. The word of God cuts through sophistry like a two-edged sword ” – echo Ephesians 6:17 “…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

    1. melanie jean juneau

      Yes, your right; I probably should have quoted Ephesians directly because that verse was in the back of my mind when i wrote that sentence

  2. Sometimes I might think that I am in the truth or that I am ruthlessly
    speaking the stark truth to another, but if I do not speak with Love, it
    is still sophistry – a truth without love seeks to destroy.

    Thank you for the apt reminder! A lot of the time, we can definitely work on the delivery, whether we are too passive or come on too fast and too strong. Just as often, we let the perfect– specifically our perfectionism– be the enemy of the good. We harbor wounds that become stumbling blocks for ourselves and others, and which don’t get a chance to heal if we mistakenly think that we can pray them away instead of understanding that God can make those wounds and the resulting scar tissue a source of holiness if we let Him. After all, the body and Sacred Heart of Jesus were both pierced.

    Only God and those who carry the Love of God can speak a liberating truth that heals and sets free.

    And you’ve also encapsulated why we should embrace the Eucharist: because only Jesus Christ enables us to live in His Love, to live the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Eucharist when received worthily also purifies us and our motives. The people of God did not form itself in the Old Testament; that much is true also in the New Testament.

    A lot of us need work in this area, and the learning curve is steep. Part of the reason is that we are defensive, which is of course a form of pride that we all struggle with on so many levels at once. What often makes us defensive is the moral relativism that robs us of confidence in our faith and reason, as well as not knowing who we are as Catholics, what we believe, and why. An authentic orthodoxy matters, but it does not come all at once. We may even start out defensive on the way to the Truth, though the Truth demands that we do not stay there, having become too comfortable. There are two ways of getting too comfortable with less than the Truth, and that’s when we are content to lean either too strict or too lax.

    Only humility born of practice (and vice versa) makes us more confident and less defensive. And we will have to learn this lesson over and over on different levels– someone who excels at it on one level may have to learn it on yet another. It’s hard, but it’s allowed to be. We can also be plenty impatient, not only with God and neighbor, but ourselves.

    1. melanie jean juneau

      You bring up everything I neglected to say; I agree whole heartedly- “And you’ve also encapsulated why we should embrace the Eucharist: because only Jesus Christ enables us to live in His Love, to live the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Eucharist when received worthily also purifies us and our motives”

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