"What is truth?" Such was the famous query Pontius Pilate directed to Jesus shortly before the crucifixion. Centuries later, Benedict the XVI basically says, "put away the question Pilate, because I know what you're trying to say and I'd advise you not to go there."
The Pilatian followup would have fitted nicely with the relativism of today. "Yeah, Okay. So I'll just come out and say it. There is no such thing as truth. And if there is, then I'm the one who decides what it will be. You'll make yours. I'll make mine. Unfortunately for Jesus, the truth he made for himself got him lynched and pinned to a pole."
Then there's Benedict's refutation. "Okay buddy. Let me lay it out for you. You're right, there's no such thing as truth in your mind. It's not a product of your thinking, not something that you give meaning to. It's very simply something you receive or reject--nothing else can be done with it."
I imagine Pilate would mumble something about that being hard to take, echoing the dissident disciples in John 6:60. Enter Jesus: "well then it's your choice: freedom through truth or slavery to the lie that you can create truth." We all know that Jesus was as good as anything he said. The truth of his love is the proof of that and again, the choice remains whether we accept it or reject it.
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