(This is Part 1 of the homily delivered by Auxiliary Bishop Dennis Villarojo during Sunday’s mass to open the celebration of Cebu Press Freedom Week)
“WHO do people say that I am?” The Lord asks the disciples in the Gospel today. “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, still others one of the prophets,” the disciples replied. Then the Lord directed the question to the disciples themselves: “Who do you say that I am?”
This line of questioning reminds me of another dialogue the Lord had with someone who was not his disciple but who was a figure of power in Judean politics. In this dialogue, found in the Gospel of John 18:33-38, it was not Jesus asking the questions but Pontius Pilate, the Roman Procurator of Judea. The line of questioning though was similar to the question of Jesus, only that this time, the question was directed at him: “Are you the king of the Jews?”
To this question, our Lord responded: “Mine is a kingdom not of this world... I was born for this, I came to the world for this, to bear witness to the truth.” To which Pilate did a riposte: “Truth? And what is truth?”
That was a question that rang through the ages: “And what is truth?” To the powerful, like Pilate, truth is what one says. That is why it wasn’t of much value to him. The question was actually rhetorical, serving to push aside an irrelevant idea. The powerless cannot speak the truth. Only the powerful can. The powerful say what they like, and that is the truth. The powerless, they need only to listen, and to believe, whatever the powerful says.
That was what Pilate thought, but he was wrong. When he went out to the crowd to declare that Jesus had done nothing wrong, he thought people would be pacified, and let Jesus go. But the crowd was not impressed with his Roman credentials. They believed the elders of the people, the Sanhedrin, more than they cared about what this usurper says.
Pilate had thought power automatically makes him worthy of belief. He tragically realized that power does not produce belief, it is the other way around. It is belief that produces power. Power resides in the one whom people believe in.
And what makes people believe in someone? You might think it is sincerity. Sincerity does make one worthy of trust and belief. But what if someone is sincere, yet sincerely believes in something that is wrong, or false?
Sincerity makes one trustworthy and credible for a time, but as the error or the falsity become known, trust and belief wither away, as Pilate realized, and the Sanhedrin too, no matter if they held, each in their own time, the belief of the people.
No, sincerity is not the source of trust and belief. It is truth. Truth alone can sustain trust and belief. Truth alone can transform belief into power.
That is the reason why, you, my dear friends in the media, are powerful. People believe in what you say. You have credibility. You are trustworthy. But do not let this power get into your head. The truth, after all, the basis of your power, is not a possession held in the palm of your hand. (to be continued) (Msgr. Dennis Villarojo)