The truth will set you free

Albert Cortina interviews Mn. Javier Bausili, vicar of the Parish of Sant Pere d’Octavià in the monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona).

First, let me ask you a very personal question: how did you fall in love with Jesus Christ?

I don’t know how to answer that question precisely. I can’t recognize a moment in my life where a change occurred in that sense. Rather, I would dare to say that it was He who sought me out. The prophet Hosea expressed it this way: “I drew them with human bonds, with bonds of love” (Hos 11:4). I have always recognized the presence of Jesus in my life, and without realizing it, little by little, He has made me stop seeking Him simply out of a certain moral duty, and instead, sincerely seek Him out for who He is: the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

They say you are the youngest priest in Catalonia. How did you discover your priestly vocation?

My vocational journey began in 2015 thanks to a pilgrimage to Ávila on the occasion of the Teresian Jubilee Year and the celebration of the fifth centenary of the birth of Saint Teresa of Jesus. This event coincided with the summer after the first year of high school. The last night of the meeting ended with a prayer vigil, and because of life and youth, instead of attending the vigil, I ended up with some friends at the foot of the wall, watching the rest of the group praying in the distance. But well, the Lord always surprises and at that moment he decided to burst into my life in a new way. I still didn’t know what he was asking of me, since there really is no one more blind than he who does not want to see, but something had changed inside me.

I must admit that I had never closed the door to the Lord, but neither was I completely open. However, at that moment, the Lord knocked on the door. At that moment, I may not have opened it wide, but it was clear to me that Jesus was calling me and that I had to get closer to Him.

At that time I had a certain life of faith, but that occasion served to make me seek the Lord with greater enthusiasm. When I returned from the summer period, I started the second year of high school and my life of faith increased. However, in relation to the discernment of my vocation as such I did not advance much. Later, I began the first year of pharmacy at the university and simultaneously I was a catechist for adolescents from the first to third year of secondary school. During that year, a seminarian friend – currently a priest – recommended that I choose a spiritual director, which I did and it really paid off, since this priest helped me a lot to concretize my vocational discernment.

In the summer, on another pilgrimage, this time to the Shrine of Fatima, I took a further step in this process of discovering my priestly vocation by praying the following prayer: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love you! I ask your forgiveness for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, do not love you!” With that prayer, and inside the shrine, it was when I saw clearly that I had to take a more serious step and dare to give myself totally to the Lord. At that moment I made this phrase from the Gospel my own: “Ask and it will be given to you.” Later, a few days later, I met with the Bishop of Terrassa to ask him to enter the seminary.

In this world deeply in crisis, how do you transmit to others the positive part of life, Christian hope, the Light of Christ that humanity in our time so needs?

Even with many wounds and many other difficulties, young people today have a great openness to the Lord. We find ourselves in a society that is very thirsty for answers. Young people – and adults too – are eager to find a community to which they belong. The same is true for the need for peace. We are all doing so many activities simultaneously and in such a hurry that the need to achieve true inner peace becomes more and more urgent.

At this time, many young people have not heard of the Church and, unlike their parents, are not against the Christian religion, but they are very indifferent to the faith. I have seen that they have a great curiosity about what the Eucharist is and about other aspects of Catholic spirituality. This curiosity and openness is a great opportunity to evangelize and to give answers to all those who are looking for meaning and purpose in their lives. The Holy Mass and Eucharistic Adoration, together with the challenge of the Sacraments offered by the Catholic Church, are a great discovery for many. Also, the joy that is experienced in the parish community, as well as the dedication and service to others.

Pope Francis, in his recent encyclical Dilexit nos (He has loved us), invites us to contemplate and be devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. How would you explain to the men and women of our world – which seems to have lost its heart, as the Pope says – the mystery of God’s love for us?

In existential terms, God’s love for us is the answer to that need for the infinite that human beings have, to that insatiable thirst that our hearts have to feel loved by God. The Sacred Heart of Jesus expresses this mystery of the free and infinite love of God that gives itself to all of us to welcome us without reservation. The Heart of Jesus, which happens to be pierced by the suffering of our sins, allows itself to be wounded so that we can enter into this Heart, from where every true response to our need for unconditional love springs forth.

More specifically, what would you say to young people who are far from God or who do not know Him?

They should not be satisfied with what the world offers them and that does not really satisfy the deepest desires of their hearts. We do not possess life to tiptoe through it superficially. God offers us freedom and the opportunity to live it in abundance. Following this path has consequences. There will be moments of difficulty, but also moments of great happiness and joy. Truly, I assure you that it is very worthwhile to follow the path of the Lord.

Recently, you gave a conference in your parish in the monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès entitled “Goodbye truth. Truth and relativism in our life.” For you, what is Truth, in capital letters? Could we say that there is an absolute Truth?

Jesus defined himself as “the Way, the Truth and the Life.” So, the question is not so much what is truth, but who constitutes that Truth. Insofar as Christ is the Truth, that fact demands a response from us. The absoluteness of Truth, in part, escapes us, and for that reason we are not able to exhaust all of reality.

In that conference, you said that without Truth there is no objective morality. What did you mean? Can you give us some examples?

When we talk about morality, we are referring to good and evil. Something is good when it fulfils and adequately carries out its purpose. We say that a tree is good when it bears good fruit, a lamp is good when it illuminates our surroundings in the appropriate way. In this way, every human being acts seeking to be happy, since that is our purpose. If I deny the existence of truth, I also deny the existence of an ultimate end. If there is no ultimate end, good and evil do not correspond to the relationship of the act with the end, but to another judgment, no longer objective, but subjective, such as: pleasure, utility, what the majority agrees on, etc.

For objectivity to exist, it is necessary to recognise that there is something outside of me that serves as a point of reference. That is reality. If we deny the truth, we are denying access to that point of reference, so that every moral judgment would be developed based on something that is not external, that is, on a subjective attitude.

For example, if everything is subjective and relative, it is also subjective and relative whether democracy is good or pedophilia is bad, etc.

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI presented to the world his encyclical “Caritas in veritate”, that is, love or charity in truth. For you, what is the relationship between truth and love?

One needs and is a call for the other. Saint Thomas said that to love is to want the good of the beloved. In the event that truth did not exist, there would be no good, therefore, it would be impossible to love the other. In other words, if I do not know what is good for you, how can I desire you and seek your good? And it is not only because I could not know what your good is, but because if there is no truth, there is no common ground to share. If truth falls, dialogue falls, understood not only as an exchange of words, but as a reciprocal movement of giving and receiving. And without this movement, how can one love? Obviously, with it would fall the common good, because there would be no recognizable good nor would there be a common space.

Love without truth is not true love, it is emotivism or sentimentalism. Thus, a truth without love could not accompany you on your journey towards the Good, that is, towards the ultimate end.

And the truth without love is tyranny, it is imposition. We Christians propose the Truth with our testimony and with our love in action.

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him: “If you remain in my Word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will make you free.” How would you explain today to our friends, parishioners and every man and woman of good will that the Truth makes us free and therefore happier?

Generally, we tend to equate freedom with the possibility of choosing, but not all choices are equal. My parents have two dogs, one of them, Thor, is especially greedy. If you offer Thor two plates, one with food and one without, his instinct will push him in one of the two directions, obviously towards the plate that contains food. There is nothing I can do to prevent it. In other words, Thor will not go on a diet voluntarily.

However, human beings go beyond the instincts of animals, since we have free will. When faced with each option, we ask ourselves a question: what will make me happier? This ability to rise above reality, transcend it, and seek ultimate happiness means that we are not slaves to impulse. The challenge for us is twofold: on the one hand, to know what makes us happy – the Truth – and on the other, to be able to follow that path that leads us to complete happiness.

For example, if you intend to climb the Sanctuary of Montserrat, but you do not know the way, you are a slave to your ignorance and ultimately you will not be able to go. If, on the other hand, you know the way, the possibility of reaching the top of the Sanctuary opens up for you. The more you know what you will find there, the more strongly you will want to seek it, making it easier to overcome the difficulties of the path. In the end, from that free choice, when you are in front of the image of the Virgin of Montserrat, you will feel happy.

We know that Christianity proclaims that God is the Supreme Truth and that Jesus Christ is the revealed Truth of God, visible in his humanity. Do you think that Pelagianism and Gnosticism are two great errors that continue to spread today regarding the Truth in Christ, true God and true man?

Indeed, this is the case. In fact, Pope Francis in the apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exultate mentions both realities as very current deviations and as enemies of holiness. In essence, they are two ways of expressing the attempt to remove the Lord from the center of our lives and of History. In one of these two errors – Pelagianism – trust is placed in the will and in the other error – Gnosticism – trust is placed in knowledge. In the end, it is what St. Paul already said: “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” The mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption are so radical and profound that it will always be easier for human pride to reduce them than to accept them.

Jesus is our only Savior. How would you explain this truth to believers of other religions, to followers of the New Age, or to agnostics and atheists?

I refer to what we have commented previously when I stated that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I would ask the three realities that you mention, which are very present in our world, to be consistent until the end. To live and seriously experience all the approaches that they assume in theory, and see if that is the answer that convinces them the most. We could say that the way to test a theory is to see if it works. Of course, my proposal is that if you give Jesus Christ the opportunity to enter your lives, you will experience in your hearts this Truth that He is our authentic Savior.

Finally, how would you define your relationship with Our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary?

My real experience with the Virgin Mary is that She always shows me her love and tenderness. There must be something special about a mother for the Lord of history himself to have chosen to have one. The Blessed Virgin Mary always helps me to turn my gaze to Christ, her Redeemer Son. She is Mother and Teacher. That is why we say that she is the Mother of God, Mother of the Church and Our Mother. I feel very close to Mary.

Image of the Immaculate Conception. Monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona). Photo: Albert Cortina