Between Sign and the Truth. A systematic-theological reflection by Prof J. Egbulefu CCE, Rome 2021

“May your sacraments, O Lord, we pray, perfect in us what lies within them, so that what we now celebrate in signs we may one day possess in truth” - Communion Prayer, 30th Sunday in Year B (24th Ocbober 2021)

    @1 What is ‘sign’?

A sign is that reality, that existing being, that signifies another reality, and this other reality that it signifies or that it has as its significance, this signified reality, as well as the sign itself, is true only as long as it is standing on the truth, and it, as well as the sign itself, is intelligible only as long as it is structured, for unstructured or formless, amorphous, reality is not intelligible, cannot be understood, and a true reality as that which is standing on the truth is understood when, reading between the lines of the structured reality, the truth-searching human spirit arrives at the truth on which the reality is standing in order to be true.

    @2 What is the truth ?

The truth is that being which underlies and sustains the trueness and truthfulness of every true and truthful being and without which no being were true (and hence interchangeable with being one, good - suitable, useful and desirable- and beautiful) and truthful (and hence interchangeable with being coherent, consistent, logical, honest, reliable, far from being false, counterfeit, a deceit, a lie).

The Trueness of a being consists  in the authenticity of that being, in the rootedness of that being in the author as in the only one that has authority over the authored. The Truthfulness of a being consists in the correspondence of that being as the authored  to its author, of the offspring to its origin, of the child to the parent, or of the outside to the inside of same being, or of the container to its content, of the seen  to the unseen, of the present uttered word to the ongoing interior thought or plan, of the present or past promissory word to the present performed act, action and activities, of the present performed act, action and activities  to the ongoing interior thought or plan.

@3 The relation between a natural sign and the natural truth to which it is related

Let the face of the splendidly shining, dazzling,Sun above that is not directly accessible to the human eyes be the truth, and the image or Reflex of the face of the Sun that has been implanted in the limpid and sparkling, crystal-clear mirror-like watermasse below by the rays of the Sun that are emitted by the Sun and emanate from the face of the Sun and is carried and sunken permanently into, an irremovably from, the watermasse by the rays as long as the rays run from the face of the Sun  into the water, be the sign through the gazing at which the eyes look and contemplate - go through the contours of, or the lines and curves on - the face of the Sun, without being dazzled.

According to the Natural Science of Chemistry, water is chemically constituted by “two elements” of hydrogen and “one element “ of Natural oxygen constituted by three isotopes - isotope 16  made of 8 protons and 8 neutrons, isotope 17 made of 8 protons and 9 neutrons and isotope 18 made of 8 protons and 10 neutrons.

@4 The relation between supernatural sign and the supernatural truth to which it is related in the Light of the relation between a natural sign and the natural truth to which it is related

The Truth of the Word of God sunken into, and permanently upheld in, the Depositum fidei by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven by God  the Father in the name - in answer to  the request - of the Son of God is to the  Son Himself of  God  as the Image or reflex of the face of the Sun sunken into and permanently upheld in the limpid and sparkling, crystal-clear and mirror-like water-masse  by the sunrays emitted by the Sun and emanating from the face of the Sun is to the  face itself of the Sun.

The Depositum Fidei is that deposit of the truths of the Christian Faith which comprises  “the Holy Scriptures” embracing the two - old and new -  Testaments  like two elements of hydrogen, and “the Tradition of the Church” constituted by the three ever valid values - doctrines, devotions and disciplines - of the Church handed on from generation to generation in the Church by the Magisterium of the Church and like the one element of Natural oxygen constituted by three isotopes - isotope 16  made of 8 protons and 8 neutrons, isotope 17 made of 8 protons and 9 neutrons and isotope 18 made of 8 protons and 10 neutrons.