Living Your Truth Will Set You Free By Beth Trouy
There we are alone with God whose voice echoes in our
depths.” It says further that
we are obligated to follow our
conscience even if it does not align with those around us.
We are obligated to follow our conscience even if it opposes
teachings of the Church. In fact,
to fail to follow one’s conscience is a grievance and dishonor
to our Creator. Furthermore, it says, not following our moral
conscience is as much a sin as doing harm to another. For, we
are harming ourselves when we deny our inner truth.
T
he word truth doesn’t seem to have the indelible power
it once had even just a decade ago. Now, we all seem to be at odds, more than ever before,
in agreeing to what is the truth. I always thought that valid
statistics, video evidence, and
a trusted authority were all that
were needed to agree to fact. Not so anymore. We can manipulate stats to fit our opinion. We alter videos. We stretch the truth
to fit our platform. It’s hard to know where to turn, and who
to trust. Integrity seems to be
taking a back seat to influence
and popularity. How can we set
our moral compass when “True
North” seems to be negotiable? Growing up Catholic, I was
fortunate to have been taught
the process of discernment of inner truth. The beauty of this process is that my inner truth
14
| SPIRITUALITY
may not be yours; even though
Statistically speaking, the
the same set of information,
is 6 to 8 times higher than the
we both may have been given
morals or teachings. Now don’t
let this confuse you to think this means you can make up your own statistics or version of
facts. No, this truth is more the
inner core of one’s conscience in discerning what one’s
personal truth of who we are
called to be in this world. For
people with sexual orientation
variances or gender dysphoria, figuring out this truth can be
life or death. Society can give a person a lot of conflicting information depending on
where you look. For someone
confused and unsure, knowing what is “right” and how best to find it, can be a trial. You
see, if we live the life we think others think we should, we aren’t really living at all.
suicide rate for LGBTQ persons national population and nearly 50% of transgenders attempt
suicide. Only in living our truth
as we are created, will we thrive. How then, do we know and
find our truth in a world full of conflicting information?
Finding truth today is a journey that requires careful research. Finding our inner truth can be
even more difficult with all the conflicting information. Is it
natural? Is it a defect? Being
misled by fake news, misguided
ministers and just bad theology, it can be nearly impossible to
discern. Add in some low self-
esteem and insecurity and it can
Unfortunately, churches can
be deadly. The best suggestion
for affirming information on
and go, as the Church says, to
many are leaving organized
alone with our Creator. In deep
Church also has its many, many
conversation with God, while
gender norms, but one area it
we have learned, we will know our
the examination and primacy
of our souls, we will know our
“conscience is a person’s most
passage can be found in section
be some of the worst sources
is to turn off the outer chatter
this subject. It’s no wonder so
our inner sanctuary where we are
religion altogether. The Catholic
contemplation, discernment and
faults regarding sexual and
sorting through the information
gets right is its teachings on
true selves. There, in the quiet
of conscience. It teaches that
truth. Interestingly enough, this
secret core and sanctuary.
1776 of the Catholic Catechism. The truth will set you free.
