44
possess all the light, which will always be inex-
haustible, but because we will enter wholly into
that light.
34.âÂÂThe light of love proper to faith can illu-
mine the questions of our own time about truth.
Truth nowadays is often reduced to the subjec-
tive authenticity of the individual, valid only for
the life of the individual. A common truth intim-
idates us, for we identify it with the intransigent
demands of totalitarian systems. But if truth is a
truth of love, if it is a truth disclosed in personal
encounter with the Other and with others, then
it can be set free from its enclosure in individu-
als and become part of the common good. As a
truth of love, it is not one that can be imposed
by force; it is not a truth that stifles the individ-
ual. Since it is born of love, it can penetrate to
the heart, to the personal core of each man and
woman. Clearly, then, faith is not intransigent,
but grows in respectful coexistence with others.
One who believes may not be presumptuous; on
the contrary, truth leads to humility, since believ-
ers know that, rather than ourselves possessing
truth, it is truth which embraces and possesses
us. Far from making us inflexible, the security of
faith sets us on a journey; it enables witness and
dialogue with all.
Nor is the light of faith, joined to the truth
of love, extraneous to the material world, for love
is always lived out in body and spirit; the light of
faith is an incarnate light radiating from the lumi-
