Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Michael J. O’LoughlinDecember 15, 2021
Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

A Reflection for the Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent


“Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven” (Ps 85:11-12).

Finding the truth can be challenging—but it is a necessary component in the fight for justice and peace.

As a journalist, seeking the truth can be as simple as confirming that events took place as described and that people said what I am reporting they said. Who? What? When? Where? Why? And how? If I can answer those questions, the truth will emerge.

Seeking truth takes patience and tenacity. It requires the willingness to listen deeply to stories, to ask pointed and sometimes uncomfortable follow-up questions.

But it is really never that easy. Not for me as a reporter and certainly not for anyone else.

Seeking truth takes patience and tenacity. It requires the willingness to listen deeply to stories, to ask pointed and sometimes uncomfortable follow-up questions. To devote time to exploring other viewpoints, engaging with individuals who hold different perspectives. Often, all we can do is compile the facts as best we can and then use them to make an assessment about what most closely seems to point to the truth.

The process of discerning truth today is made more difficult by people who peddle lies and half-truths to advance ideological agendas. By companies that spend fortunes to get us to buy products that, truthfully, we do not need. By politicians and even religious leaders who benefit from concealing facts because the truth would be painful and damaging.

Imagine truth springing forth from the earth, clear and abundant, cooling and sustaining. The kind of truth that helps usher in justice and mercy.

Which is what makes this verse from Isaiah so compelling.

Imagine truth springing forth from the earth, clear and abundant, cooling and sustaining. The kind of truth that helps usher in justice and mercy. Truth that we know to be true no matter what others tell us.

That is the truth we celebrate at Christmas, truth that isn’t always easy but which is ultimately liberating. It may not always be as apparent as the prophet describes, but the search for it is always worthwhile.

Get to know Michael O’Loughlin, National Correspondent


1. Favorite Christmas Hymn:

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

2. Favorite Christmas Tradition

The raucous Yankee Swap with my extended family, ideally in a giant old house where we’re all spending the night.

3. Favorite Christmas Recipe

Generally, I stick to dry vodka martinis at Christmas parties, but I’ll throw in a few cranberries for a festive holiday garnish.

4. Favorite Podcast You Produced This Year

My visit to the Friends of Dorothy Catholic Worker House, because I met two Catholics living out their faith in radical ways: “How the Catholic Worker Movement inspired one couple to open their doors to people with AIDS.”

5. Favorite Christmas Photo

My sisters and I visiting Santa when we were kids.

O'Loughlin Christmas

The latest from america

Pope Leo XIV has appointed the French archbishop of Chambéry, Thibault Verny, as the new president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He succeeds Cardinal Seán O’Malley, 81, the emeritus archbishop of Boston.
Gerard O’ConnellJuly 05, 2025
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks with other members of the House July 3, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington after final passage of U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping spending and tax bill. (OSV News photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)
“Deep cuts” to SNAP and Medicaid will “inflict real suffering on these families…. SNAP and Medicaid are not luxuries, they are lifelines for millions of children across our country.”
Kevin ClarkeJuly 03, 2025
It was one of the first times Leo has spoken unscripted at length in public, responding to questions posed to him by the children.
The Vatican has named the judges that will preside over the trial of disgraced Father Marko Rupnik.