Aug. 3, 2006

‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor’

Part Two

In the previous issue of The Catholic Sun, we began our consideration of the Eighth Commandment. We noted that bearing witness to the truth requires more than merely not lying. We also recalled how the great heroes of the faith, the martyrs, are especially known as faithful witnesses after the pattern of Jesus Himself.

In part two, we shall now look more closely at some of the offenses against the truth that we struggle against most frequently today. We will look at the big lies that darken the whole of society and bring about a “Culture of Death.” In part three, in the next issue of the Sun, we shall consider the small deceits that ever so gradually corrupt the heart.

Big lies in society today

Pope John Paul II warned us about the “Culture of Death” that asserted itself so surreptitiously into the 20th century and even into the 21st. Perhaps no one epitomizes the “Culture of Death” more starkly than the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. In his infamous book “Mein Kampf” he argued that a big lie is more effective than a small one. The more outrageous the lie the more effective it is, he contended. Then, based on lies like the superiority of the Aryan race and the inferiority of the Jews and Gypsies, he set out to exercise control over the whole world.

While Hitler did not succeed and we know without a doubt that Christ has conquered sin and death, definitively defeating falsehood and hate, we must not forget the ongoing deceits of Satan, the father of lies, as he continues in vain to struggle against the Kingdom of God. The most blatant manifestation of the devil’s work in our day is found in the “Culture of Death,” which is built on cleverly concocted lies, often couched in ambiguity.

Ambiguous language

The culture of death advances by means of clever misuses of language that make it harder for people to distinguish between good and evil, even when human life is threatened. To this point, John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae (#58), “Given such a grave situation, we need now more than ever to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and to call things by their proper names, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception… Especially in the case of abortion there is a widespread use of ambiguous terminology, such as ‘interruption of pregnancy,’ which tends to hide abortion’s true nature and to attenuate its seriousness in public opinion. Perhaps this linguistic phenomenon is itself a symptom of an uneasiness of conscience. But no word has the power to change the reality of things: procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth.”

Similar misuse of ambiguous language is often employed to attack the institution of marriage today and to justify homosexual acts. Addressing this problem prior to becoming the Successor of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Ratzinger) issued the Instruction of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith titled “The Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.”

In this Instruction, the Holy Father recalls that homosexual persons, like all other persons, have God-given dignity and worth. At the same time, homosexual acts, like all other sexual acts outside of marriage, are always wrong. Accordingly, he says (#15), “But we wish to make it clear that departure from the Church’s teaching, or silence about it, in an effort to provide pastoral care is neither caring nor pastoral. Only what is true can ultimately be pastoral. The neglect of the Church’s position prevents homosexual men and women from receiving the care they need and deserve.”

He goes on to say (#17), “All support should be withdrawn from any organizations which seek to undermine the teaching of the Church, which are ambiguous about it, or which neglect it entirely. Such support, or even the semblance of such support, can be gravely misinterpreted.”

Impacting the whole of society

When falsehoods attack the institution of marriage and undercut the defense of innocent human life, not only are individual lives threatened, the whole fabric of society is tattered and torn. Lies, under any form, break down social relationships, weaken trust between persons, and open the door to violence.

Such “big lies” require a concerted response by the Church and by people of good will in society to practice the virtue of truthfulness and to expose lies wherever they emerge.

In this regard, the communications media play an important role by the quality of information that they provide and by the kind of cultural promotion they undertake. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church points out (#2494), “Society has a right to information based on truth, freedom, justice, and solidarity.”

Relativism: Inability to see and tell the Truth

When truthfulness begins to decline, distrust follows, and distrust of those in authority in particular. Such distrust touches many areas of modern society, from public officials such as teachers and police officers to leaders in the Church such as priests and bishops. This has led to the view that truth can only be found in individual subjects, that is, in oneself alone. As a result of such relativism, so rampant today, many contend that truth is determined by whatever “I” think is true. Thus, you hear things like this: “I have my truth and you have yours.” Obviously, this statement is completely illogical. Two contradictory statements cannot both be true.

The most distressing problem with relativism, and its inherent distrust of authority, is that it leaves people on an island, each trying to find the truth for himself. This leads not only to confusion and error, but also to great anguish. Suffering is inevitable when we turn our back on Truth Himself, i.e. God.

Who will rescue us from this desperate situation? The Holy Spirit will do so, the One Jesus calls the Spirit of Truth and Love. And He will do so by acting through persons of faith who are committed to the truth and who have the courage to speak the truth in love.

Truth is One

To deny the existence of objective truth is to walk blindly through life, never being rooted in anything greater than the “individual self.” But belief in God rescues us from such folly. Through faith, we discover that all truth is one, that it cannot contradict itself, and that there is no such thing as competing truths.

Whether truth is found in science or received through Divine Revelation, it serves any person who finds it. And it brings that person into a fuller knowledge of himself and to a deeper awareness of God and His Divine Providence. The better we know the truth of things, the better we can align ourselves toward our particular mission in life and our eternal destiny.

Copyright 2006 The Catholic Sun.