On the Concept of Truth, Morality, Good, and Evil

In class on Ash Wednesday, I made the comment that if Americans wanted a libertarian society or a society in which the government did not interfere with people's lives, then we must begin to take responsibility for our actions, realize they have consequences, and therefore act in ways that are good. The immediate response from my teacher was, "But whose good and whose truth? Who gets to dictate whether what we do is moral?" To be honest, I could not think fast enough to answer this question, and perhaps that was for the best. Since then, however, I have done some more thinking about the question, especially as it is something I know I will need to answer again in the future, not only in this class, but in others as well.
I have come to the conclusion that we cannot have concepts of "good," "evil," "morality," "justice," and "injustice" without acknowledging that there is a truth that is out there that is greater than ourselves. And that truth, must be an objective truth, meaning that it is, and therefore, it must have authority because of its existence independently of anything else. In addition to this, I have come to the conclusion that everyone has the responsibility to get to know this truth, react with it and bring it more to the forefront.
People need to act in ways that reflect truth and that their actions begin and originate from the things they do to themselves. People may respond to this, "Well, I don't believe there is such a thing and so good, evil, morality--it's all relative." To this response, I say that if it is indeed all relative, then how can we even begin to dream up concepts of rights, laws, and all the rest? If we have no responsibility to ourselves, to hold ourselves accountable, how can we say things like "the government needs to do this for its people" or "society has the responsibility to care for these things?" The fact is, we can't. The government is only made up of people, and if they have no accountability to themselves, then they cannot have accountability for others. The same with society. It does not follow reason that we can demand responsibility and consequences from entities that have no will, that cannot act of their own accord.
To go back to my teacher's question of 'whose' to choose, my ultimate answer is, we cannot choose the truth of a person. If we acknowledge that the truth is something greater than ourselves, then no one person has "the truth." For a single person to have the truth, that person would need to be God, completely one with God. But if that person is God, then why would that person choose to be human, to be involved in all this pettiness, to live a life detached from truth? But then the only other option is that God never mingled with humans and never understood its suffering, then that would make it cruel and therefore the truth would be a cruelty and so it wouldn't be good. So how to answer these questions?
Well, the answer would be that because God is the truth and the truth is good, it chooses to come down of its own accord to provide truth to people. In short, God loves. Because God loves, he comes to reveal truth and therefore hope to the human that indeed, there is something more than what is seen as petty existence here. And here is the beauty of the answer of Jesus Christ and the answer of the Holy Trinity. Christ reveals the truth of what love is to humans, by bringing it to our level. He shows that love isn't circling in onto one's self, but to be continually outpouring and outstretched. By doing this, he not only fulfills the law, but then abolishes the need for it, for, if we could only follow his example and give ourselves totally to and for love, then we would indeed be fulfilling the law and be fulfilling what is good.
This is why I believe what I believe because it follows reason, and I can really see it no other way. And I think that is the beauty of all religions in general, the fact that there is the search for a truth greater than ourselves and to find a love more complete and real than any that could be experienced here. What is even better is the fact that God would not limit himself just to Christ, and forget about other religions, but that he would in fact speak to people using whatever means necessary. That is the extent of God's love, and Christ is the means of that communication, no matter what religion a person belongs to. It is for this reason that we can say, "There is no slave nor free, no Jew nor Greek," because ultimately humanity is reunified and restored to what it once was.
I know for my own part, that I am not to the point of totally giving myself to and for love. There are times when I don't even partially give of myself. I still can be petty and selfish. I still say sometimes that I don't care about the truth, that I am free to do whatever I want. It doesn't take long to be reminded that this is not the case and that I cannot live without the truth and that acting selfishly doesn't make me free. This is the Season of Lent in the Church, my hope is that this year, after reflecting on these things, I may grow closer to the point where I can totally give myself to and for love.