Advincula urges faithful to seek truth amid world of fake news

MANILA, Philippines: Who is man? Who are we?

In answering the universal question, Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula turned to the biblical event when Pontius Pilate presented a scourged Jesus, bound and crowned with thorns, to a hostile crowd shortly before his Crucifixion.

«In a world of fake news, relativism, blatant lying and revisionism, with the creeping dominance of the artificial and superficial, we are invited to contend with, seek, fight and subscribe to the truth, most importantly the truth about ourselves » Archbishop Advincula said in his Homily during the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord at the Manila Cathedral on Good Friday.

«Beyond the socio-cultural impositions and politico-economic definitions, in truth who is man? Who are we?» he asked.

The Manila Archbishop said when Pilate pointed at Jesus Christ and said: Ecce homo (Behold the man), «he was effectively saying: this is man, this is the truth about man, this is the truth about you and me.» «What truths can we glean from the marred, spurned, pierced, crushed and condemned Jesus?» Advincula asked.

From the injuries of Jesus, he said we can «decipher all that is wrong about us and the horrendous evil we are capable of.» Advincula said the stripes left by the flagellation on the body of Jesus «are the marks of our sinfulness and the brutality of our mean and cruel hearts.» He said as we point our fingers at those who betrayed and made Jesus suffer «we are invited to an honest introspection.» «Have we not also been complicit in betraying a friend? denying a loved one? abandoning the innocent? conniving with the proud, the envious and jealous? washing our hands with accountability? mocking, striking and abusing the weak and the innocent?» said Advincula.

He said Jesus, the victim of the cross, reveals to man his propensity to be «death-dealing in big and small ways.» Advincula said by looking upon Jesus and learning from Him «we see the good in us and the potential of who we can still be.» «Hidden behind the murderous plot and threatening chorus are glimmers of faith, hope and love,' he said Even when Jesus was confronted with rejection, persecution and violence, Advinvula said Jesus was