“What is truth?” Pilate asked – but did not wait around for the answer. Why didn’t he?
Looking at the Visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich, we can answer both questions with respect to Pilate himself, and by extension also with respect to ourselves. Consider this passage from “The Bitter Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (emphasis is mine):
“Jesus answered, ‘Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this I came into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.’ Pilate looked at him, and rising from his seat said, ‘The truth! What is truth?’ They then exchanged a few more words, which I do not now remember, and Pilate returned to the terrace. (…) He tried to persuade himself that he wished to pass a just sentence; but he deceived himself, for when he asked himself, ‘What is the truth?’ he did not wait for the answer. His mind was filled with confusion, and he was quite at a loss how to act, as his sole desire was to entail no risk upon himself.”
He did not, in fact, want to know what truth was, neither with respect to the sentence he had to pass, nor, as we will see in the upcoming passage, with respect to himself:
“He glanced at the mangled and bleeding Form before him, and exclaimed inwardly: ‘Is it possible that he can be God?’ Then he turned to Jesus, and adjured him to tell him if he was God, if he was that king who had been promised to the Jews, where his kingdom was, and to what class of gods he belonged. I can only give the sense of the words of Jesus, but they were solemn and severe. He told him ‘that his kingdom was not of this world,’ and likewise spoke strongly of the many hidden crimes with which the conscience of Pilate was defiled; warned him of the dreadful fate which would be his if he did not repent; and finally declared that he himself, the Son of Man, would come at the last day, to pronounce a just judgment upon him.”
“Pilate, who did not desire to know the truth, but was solely anxious to get out of the difficulty without harm to himself, became more undecided than ever; his conscience whispered – ‘Jesus is innocent;’ his wife said, ‘he is holy;’ his superstitious feelings made him fear that Jesus was the enemy of his gods; and his cowardice filled him with dread lest Jesus, if he was a god, should wreak his vengeance upon his judge. He was both irritated and alarmed at the last words of Jesus, and he made another attempt for his release; but the Jews instantly threatened to lay an accusation against him before the Emperor. This menace terrified him, and he determined to accede to their wishes, although firmly convinced in his own mind of the innocence of Jesus, and perfectly conscious that by pronouncing sentence of death upon him he should violate every law of justice, besides breaking the promise he had made to his wife in the morning. Thus did he sacrifice Jesus to the enmity of the Jews, and endeavour to stifle remorse by washing his hands before the people, saying, ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just man; look you to it.’ Vainly dost thou pronounce these words, O Pilate! for his blood is on thy head likewise; thou canst not wash his blood from thy soul, as thou dost from thy hands.”
Pilate, who did not want to know the truth about himself, was thus unable to pronounce a just sentence over Jesus or anyone else, for that matter.
What can we learn from this?
If we cannot face our own deficiencies, if we do not want to know the truth about ourselves, we will not be able to determine the truth about anything or anyone else. It really is as simple as this.
