My Truth vs. The Truth

Experience, Relativism, and Objectivity

The phrase has taken on a rather significant appeal to a rather large group of individuals within the LGBTQ+ community as well as those who have a deep hunger simply to be heard, understood, acceptance and loved. At first, when such language began to appear in the mainstream I resisted it, reaffirming the objective character of truth by which subjective (perceptive judgments) must adhere. But not long after I came across a number of texts (some of which are in the Missal), and from Thomists which appear to use a similar language.

I was reminded that the Church’s notion of truth has either a remote or proximate relationship to experience. Prior to understanding Truth as the Person of the Son, we can understand it as a transcendental - which at first is an abstract concept, but also something humanity can also internally experience. Experience has a lot to do with the “core” of “my truth” wherefore a person makes judgments based upon their own experiences. Such judgment simply means that we do one of two things: divide or compose, and declare existence or non-existence.

Judgment

To compose or divide simply means that we can abstractly separate concepts or qualities of something within our own mind. Sometimes in this life we can separate things in a healthy way - wherefore we generate boundaries. Or we can separate things in an unhealthy way, wherefore we neglect our responsibilities. Likewise, we can compose our duties in ways that are unhealthy or healthy and rightly ordered. We make judgments about our responsibilities toward others, toward our perception of their needs, and when they might simply be needy. To be able to separate or compose, in our judgments we begin to understand how to take our relationships apart and put them back together in a manner that is as healthy as the judgments we make.