6th Sunday of Easter, A May 14, 2023
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
“Facts don’t care about your feelings.” If you’ve spent any time on the internet or watching debates on TV, you’ve probably come across that claim or something similar. It’s this idea that the truth is what it is, regardless of our experiences and how we feel. People on the Right often use this kind of phrase, but there’s a similar claim by those on the Left. In their efforts to overturn a tradition or reject a certain heritage, they will suggest that hatred, false loyalty, or sheer stubbornness is stopping their opponents from facing the truth about real progress.
Indeed, I’ve sometimes made similar claims in my teaching and preaching about Catholic morality and human nature. This idea of facts before feelings is appealing because it does point to a certain truth. We instinctively recognize that there must be some objective standard. The claim of facts before feelings is partly true.
Except there’s a problem. It isn’t completely true. Jesus implies this in the gospel. Yes, 2+2=4 is true regardless of your feelings about it. Yet, the more profound truths and deeper realities are not so cut and dry. Rather, I should say that human beings simply do not work that way.
Notice that Jesus promises to send “the Spirit of Truth” to his disciples. This is the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth is God himself and to receive the spirit of truth is to gain the ability to know truth as clearly and deeply as possible – things like the meaning of life, the purpose of the universe, the right and wrong way to live life. But notice also what Jesus says before he makes this promise. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Only then does Jesus say he will ask the Father to send out the Spirit.
In other words, you have to act rightly before you can know the truth fully. Your feelings, your experiences, your loyalties do matter when we talk about facts and truth. Jesus did not come to earth just to spit facts and “destroy” his opponents in arguments. No, he began by proclaiming a way of life and by offering people an encounter with him.
If you have not experienced certain things like the love of God… if you haven’t felt the importance of certain ideas… you won’t be able to learn the whole truth. Your rational ability to know the truth – your reason – and your freedom to make choices – your will – are interconnected. That means there is a kind of feedback loop here: the more you live rightly, the more truth you’ll be able to accept and the more you’ll be able to live rightly.
This cycle, this interdependence of reason and will is also why you see and hear people so firmly convinced of things that are so obviously wrong to you. Most people experiencing that conclude that the other person must be blinded by things like hatred or loyalty or trauma. They are tempted to say “facts don’t care about your feelings.” But how can you be so sure you’re not the one who is blinded by the same thing?
When I was younger, I used to think Shakespeare was a terrible writer and Romeo and Juliet not just bad, but downright evil. I’m sure some high school students are eager to agree with that claim. Of course, Church teaching and Scripture don’t say that… good priests and bishops never taught that, but I thought it was obvious and that it was just cultural bias and emotional attachment that blinded people to it. I was downright mean about it in some cases.
What changed my mind was not just good arguments, but new experience, encounter, and a changes in how I lived. In dating and observing others date, I started to see how well it depicted foolishness and compulsion in young love. I encountered good and holy people who appreciated the work. As I matured, I began to recognize that my problem with it wasn’t the work itself, but how poorly it was taught. The world acts like Romeo and Juliet are supposed to be good examples of love, but it’s really a critique of confusing obsession with love.
My experience blinded me to the truth. I was partly correct – suicide is not a good way to show true love – but also wrong: Shakespeare never said it was. In order to see those nuances more clearly, however, my own life had to change. I had to face the contradictions in my dating life. I needed to meet people whose opinion I could respect because they lived truth as well as spoke it.
This is implied in St. Peter’s teaching in the second reading: “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear.” In short, make your arguments, but only if your example before and after gives you the credibility to make them.
Simply put, your ability to learn the truth is directly connected to the way you live. Most young atheists don’t actually have good arguments against God’s existence, they just want to be able to sleep with the girlfriends without feeling guilty. Most pro-choice people really don’t realize human life is at stake, they are just overly focused on their desire to control their own lives. Most radical conservatives aren’t acting on principled arguments, but are reacting to the destruction liberalism has caused in their families and cities. In every case, they are convinced that the other side is blinded by their feelings when it’s really themselves who are blinded… some more so than others.
People say, “facts don’t care about your feelings.” Well, I say that your feelings do care about the facts and your feelings eventually follow your actions. If you want to find the peace and joy that can only come from knowing the Truth, you have to start living what you do know. If you never keep the commandments, you’ll never understand why they are commandments in the first place. If you never make use of the truth you have, why on earth would the Truth trust you with anything more?
That’s the thing we’re missing: the truth isn’t just some impartial force aloof from you and your experience. They say facts don’t care about your feelings, but who said all we want are “facts?” We want the Truth! And the Truth is a person. Jesus Christ does care about your feelings. He may not follow what you feel, he will sometimes contradict your feelings, but he does care. If you work through them, if you choose to embrace, act on, and follow the truth he has already given you, he will give you more. And the Truth will set you free; free from slavery to sin, slavery to the devil, and even slavery to your own unreliable feelings.
Why? Because Truth doesn’t just care about your feelings, he loves you enough to save you despite what you feel. All you have to do is let him in, one act of loving obedience at a time.