24th Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Wednesday - Pillar and foundation of truth (school mass)

 

If someone told you 2 + 2 = 5, would you believe them? Why not? Because you know the truth. Or if someone said the sun is cold, you’d know that’s wrong.

In the first reading today, St. Paul wrote to a young bishop, named Timothy, and explained that the Church—the Church established by Jesus—is the pillar and foundation of truth, meaning the Catholic Church makes sure we don’t get tricked about what is true about God, about love, about how to live rightly in the eyes of God. The Church is like a giant light that shines so we don’t get lost in the dark.

In the Old Testament there is the story of Moses leading the Israelites through the desert on their way to the promised Land. They had to travel hundreds and hundreds of miles, on foot, with no map, no GPS, no google maps to guide them. But God created a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night to guide them, so they wouldn’t get lost.

St. Paul, in calling the Catholic Church the pillar of truth, certainly wants us to think of that Old Testament story. Like that pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night guiding the Israelites through the desert on their way to the promised land, God has erected the Catholic Church as the pillar of truth, so that we may be guided to the promised land of heaven. 

This is why we have priests and bishops and Popes and trained teachers, who teach us about Jesus and what it means to follow Him. Because God doesn’t want us lost in the desert. He wants us to make our way through this life with clarity about how we are to live, with truth to guide our actions and decisions and behavior. 

So when you come to Mass, when you listen to your teachers, when you read the Bible, the Church is helping you learn the truth about God—the truth that God wants you to know.

For, Jesus didn’t want His truth to get lost or forgotten, so He gave us the Church. And just like that pillar of fire—shining with light in the darkness-- the Church shines with the light of God’s truth for the world that Jesus is real, that He loves us, that he truly is the Son of God, that He saves us, and that He is with us. 

In the Gospel today, Jesus described the people of his generation who turned their backs on the truth about who he was. So, too, in our own generation many people turn their back on God. Nonetheless, we have the responsibility of learning the truth, making God’s truth the foundation of our lives, living the truth, teaching the truth, shining with the truth of God for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.