††††††††† VERITATIS SPLENDOR †††††††††

This channel is dedicated to the SPLENDOR OF TRUTH.

Truth is not just a "something". THE TRUTH is Somebody, a real Person, Who is absolute, unchanging, and universally knowable. His Name is Jesus Christ, and He is the Only, Most Splendid, "Word" of God - the ULTIMATE EXPRESSION of THE LOVE Who is the Creator of all things. He is the very ground of all reality, for through Him, with Him, and in Him, all things were made.

Today this "Word" of God is most fully revealed to man through His living Body, the Church - His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church - which Jesus Himself founded, commissioned to proclaim Him to all nations, and pledged to be with until the end of time. Thus, at the heart of the Church, guiding her Mission and shepherding her into the fullness of truth (which is Himself), is Christ Himself, always present in her, as she preaches Him crucified for the redemption of fallen man. Faithful to His promise, our incarnate God dwells with(in) us - in Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity - "all days", "even unto the end of time." Jesus truly is our Emmanuel ("God with us").

This Real Presence of God in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar was vividly paralleled in the Old Testament of Scripture: "In the daytime the cloud of the Lord was seen over the Dwelling; whereas at night, fire was seen in the cloud by the WHOLE house of Israel in ALL the stages of their journey." (Exodus 40:38) Once God was distantly visible to His people in a Pillar of Cloud; now He (the God whose actions are NEVER regressive) is intimately present to us in His "Pillar and Bulwark of truth", which is His Church. There is nothing "metaphorical" about this, just as there was nothing metaphorical about the visible fire of God's presence among the Israelites. Now He is here in Person, accompanying us and sustaining us, not with the old manna (which our fathers ate and died), but with the true Bread of Life - His own eucharistic Flesh and Blood. God's inanimate temple of Old Testament times has passed away. Now, all who are temples of His living Presence "will never die".

Through the ministry of His Church, "lifted up" on her altars, our ETERNAL High Priest-Victim continues His TIME TRANSCENDANT SACRIFICE of Calvary (the only acceptable, propitiatory and ONGOING oblation to His Father). Thereby He "draws all men" away from the darkness and death of sin, unto (actually, INTO) Himself. And through Himself, into the very heart o