Murió la Verdad, in English, Truth has Died, is an engraving done by Francisco de Goya as part of a series of engravings made in 1810 – 1820 titled Disasters of War. The engravings depict scenes from the Peninsular War (1808 – 1814) between Spain and France during the Napoleonic Wars. Some of them are based on his personal observations and some on eye-witness accounts. Goya’s artwork speaks to the unattributed adage, “Truth is the first casualty of war.” In a sense this statement begs the question, what is the definition of truth?
As He was being interrogated as a captive before the Roman governor of Judea, Jesus stated, “for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” (Jn 18:37)
Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (Jn 18:38)
It appears there was a question of what “truth” meant 2000 years ago. Before I started college the most commonly accepted definitions were “conformity to knowledge, fact, actuality or logic” (American Heritage Dictionary, 1969) and “true or actual state of a matter; conformity with fact or reality” (Random House Dictionary, 1968).
What is the current definition of ‘truth’? The online Cambridge Dictionary includes ‘Someone’s Truth’ which it defines as “someone’s own personal situation or feelings, or the truth as someone personally sees it” listing as an example: “Your truth might not be the same as my truth.”
Yikes! I’m sorry. Truth is not subjective. Someone’s Truth is subjective truth. The word for that is ‘opinion’. Used in a sentence it would read:
“In my opinion, Someone’s Truth is pure bleep!“
The evil one has been defeated but that doesn’t mean he is vanquished.
The “truth” I am concerned with is not whether the earth is round or flat. It is, rather, the truth about right and wrong. It is about moral judgments. It is an issue that has plagued man from the beginning.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. (Genesis 3:1-13)
We know what happened next. The lives of every man and woman born of man since that time, save one, has been troubled and confused about what is right and what is wrong. Until the fall, Adam and Eve knew God and therefore knew Truth. They had no concept of evil or right and wrong. Obviously that all changed. Fortunately, while Adam and Eve lost the sanctifying grace they received when they were created, God did not abandon them. In fact He did more for them than they deserved. He became a man, in all ways but sin, and lived with their descendants.
Jesus explicitly told His apostles, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (Jn 14:6).
I want to draw a distinction between Truth, the truth that is Jesus Christ, and truth, which is what man considers true. Man’s truth may or may not conform to Christ’s truth. Man wants to be the arbiter of his own life choices. He wants to be the judge of what is right and wrong.
The Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. She also is the Bride of Christ. As the Mystical Body of Christ, members of the Church are the members of the body of Christ. Christ is the head of the body.
He is the head of the body, the Church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. (Col 1:18)
As the head, Christ determines what is right and what is wrong. What man thinks doesn’t change the rightness or wrongness of an act. Man’s motives for his actions only have an effect on whether the act is sinful and if it is, to what level of sin does it reach, mortal or venial.
What man has created is the notion of moral relativism. Man has tried to rationalize that the rightness or wrongness of an act does not depend on an objective understanding of what is right and what is wrong. Moral relativism determines the rightness and wrongness of an act by the circumstances. Mortal and venial sins were always understood to be sins, with one being more serious than the other. Now we have people believing the judgment of the person committing the act determines whether the act is right or wrong based on what is his “truth”.
Pope St. John Paul II addressed this issue in his encyclical, Veritatis Splendor, The Splendor of Truth, in 1993. He even cited the complicity of some Seminaries and Faculties of Theology in allowing this to be taught within the Church. I shared my own experience with situational ethics, which is part of this issue, in an essay I published previously. 1
Veritatis Splendor uses these scripture readings to form the central theme of its teaching:
“Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?” (Mt 19:16)
Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Mt 19:21)
We should be asking the same question. The question really is asking, What is Your will for me O Lord? The evil one presses upon us that to do our own will is true freedom. We know, or we should know, doing God’s will is what we should always seek to do.
Christ gave us a comprehensive method for knowing His will as well as aids to help us follow His will; to follow Him.
Christ gave us a Church. He put Peter, and his successors, in charge along with His apostles as the first bishops. He instituted the seven sacraments to restore us to the life Adam and Eve lost. We still have a fallen nature, but we have life and a promise of eternal life if we live in accordance with His will.
Although we have a fallen nature, He gave us something Adam and Eve never had after the fall. He not only gave us baptism to restore us to Sanctifying grace and give life to our souls, He gave us the sacraments of penance and anointing of the sick to restore His grace in us should we lose it through sin.
He gave us the Eucharist, the Bread of Life, to nourish us. He gave us confirmation to strengthen us. He gave us matrimony to give us strength to form our own trinities consisting of a man, a woman and children. The families created are even referred to as domestic churches. He gave us a priesthood to administer His sacraments.
All of these things come to us through His Church and it is also through the teachings of His Church we get the answers to our question, what good must I do to have eternal life?
Truth in Goya’s etching represented man’s truth. The etchings from Disasters of War have been said to “critique the tyranny of monarchy, be it French or Spanish, and the clergy.” We must acknowledge that, while the Church, as the mystical Body of Christ, is impeccable, the members of the Church, including the clergy, are not. We are all sinners.
Do not be afraid of Truth. Live your life committed to Truth. If you do, you will live with Him forever.
Greg Gillen
© 2025 Greg Gillen
August 12, 2025
Scripture/Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition
Image Credit/Murió la Verdad/Francisco de Goya from the collection of Ellen and Greg Gillen
1 Letter to My Godson — Faith and Learning
