“…to testify to the truth”

When Pilate questions Jesus, he is trying to seek truth. We, too are trying to seek truth, not  only in small every day things, but also the fullness of truth in Jesus Christ. When seeking truth, we must first know two things:  where truth comes from and what it is.
 
What is truth itself? “God is Truth itself, whose words cannot deceive. This is why one can abandon oneself in full trust to the truth and faithfulness of his word in all things. The beginning of sin and of man’s fall was due to a lie of the tempter who induced doubt of God’s word, kindness, and faithfulness.” [1] “God is also truthful when he reveals himself—the teaching that comes from God is ‘true instruction.’ When he sends his Son into the world it will be ‘to bear witness to the truth’: ‘We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true.” [2]
 
“Likewise, truth carries with it the joy and splendor of spiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself. Truth in words, the rational expression of the knowledge of created and uncreated reality, is necessary to man, who is endowed with intellect. But truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the exaltations of the soul, the mystery of God. Even before revealing himself to man in words of truth, God reveals himself to him through the universal language of creation, the work of his Word, of his wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos – which both the child and the scientist discover – ‘from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator,’ ‘for the author of beauty created them.’” [3]
 
Who can have the truth of God? Everyone can receive God’s truth; He can give this truth to whoever He wishes, in short or in full. We can never come up with our own “truth” because it is only revealed to us through God. We are accustomed to saying, “In my opinion” or “To me…I think…” in our conversations. If and when we speak the truth it is not our truth but rather God’s. Quite honestly it does not matter what we think, if we think not as God thinks. Saint Augustine was once asked what he thought a certain matter. Augustine replied, “I think as the Church thinks.” “God’s truth is his wisdom, which commands the whole created order and governs the world. God, who alone made heaven and earth, can alone impart true knowledge of every created thing in relation to himself.” [4] We are called to be bearers of the truth, for there is only one truth and we either bear it or we do not.
 
How did God make His truth visible in this world? God’s truth was made visible in and through the Incarnation, the Word of Truth taking on flesh in the form of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, God is now able to speak directly to all. “In Jesus Christ, the whole of God’s truth has been made manifest. ‘Full of grace and truth,’ he came as the ‘light of the world,’ he is the Truth.’ ‘Whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.’ The disciple of Jesus continues in his word so as to know ‘the truth [that] will make you free; and that sanctifies. To follow Jesus is to live in ‘the Spirit of truth,’ whom the Father sends in his name and who leads ‘into all the truth. To his disciples Jesus teaches the unconditional love of truth: ‘Let what you say be simply “Yes or No.”’” [5]
 
Is the truth Jesus brings a violent one? No, His truth is not a violent one in a physical nature towards anyone. Think of when Jesus as King comes into Jerusalem and “conquers the Daughter of Zion, a figure of his Church, neither by ruse nor by violence, but by the humility that bears witness to the truth. And so the subjects of his kingdom on that day are children and God’s poor, who acclaim him as had the angels when they announced him to the shepherds.” [6] St. Thomas Aquinas said, “Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another.” [7]
 
Are we compelled to seek truth? Yes. God has put with inside all of our nature the desire to seek out what is true, beautiful, and good; to know and understand right from wrong. “Man tends by nature toward the truth. He is obliged to honor and bear witness to it: “It is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons…are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth.” [8]
 
Why is absolute truth necessary? Truth can never contradict truth. It is actually simple logic that there is an absolute truth. For instance, if you believe that there is no absolute truth, you have actually just made an absolute statement, which thereby negates your position.  Others who say that multiple truths can exist are also living in a similar lie.  If that were the case then we would have to say that, a la George Orwell’s 1984, 2+2 does not always equal 4, or gravity only affects some of us, but not all of us. That is false. 2+2 is always 4, and gravity affects all of us.
 
How are we supposed to live in truth? The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us clear instructions: “Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truth in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.” [9] “The virtue of truth gives another his just due. Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what ought to be expressed and what ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty and discretion. In justice, ‘as a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the truth.’” [10]
 
Finally, “Before Pilate, Christ proclaims that he ‘has come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.’ The Christian is not to ‘be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord.’ In situations that require witness to the faith, the Christian must profess it without equivocation, after the example of St. Paul before his judges. We must keep ‘a clear conscience toward God and toward men.’” [11]
 
Search: Truth and Holiness

[1] CCC 215
[2] CCC 217
[3] CCC 2500
[4] CCC 216
[5] CCC 2466
[6] CCC 559
[7] St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 109, 3 ad 1.
[8] CCC 2467
[9] CCC 2468
[10] CCC 2469
[11] CCC 2471