To be truthful

We should never take it for granted that we are truthful enough. Let's be clear: we are never truthful enough in this life. To be sincere is an abiding challenge for all of us without exception, and it is always accompanied by terrible dangers and threats.

Weeks ago while in an excursion, I heard over the radio a song by Rod Stewart entitled, I was only joking. In it, he expressed in catchy melody and in his signature carefree but pained voice, how he finds it hard to say if he truly loved his girlfriend.

It sounded to me like a good reflection of today's common predicament when people, especially the young ones, find it hard to see if they are truthful or not. "Now you ask me if I'm sincere," the song says, "That's the question that I always fear. Verse seven is never clear. But I'll tell you what you want to hear."

To be truthful is not a matter of simply saying facts and data. Neither is it simply a question of expressing one's feelings. One can vividly express his feelings and emotions, with all the drama he can muster, but he may still not be truthful. As the poet William Shakespeare put it, it is like being "told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

To be truthful is not even a matter of sounding off the insights and conclusions one arrives after some thorough study. One can make use of his great intellectual and creative powers, coming up with tremendous ideas and impressive theories, but if he is not with God, he will still miss the boat.

He will be misdirected, reducing and distorting reality, mistaking the forest for the trees, framing things unfairly. He will be prone to tricks and gimmicks, and to temptations to play with legalism, intellectualism, and all structures and figures of formalism without the substance, to attain a selfish goal instead of the common good.

To be truthful requires nothing less than a vital union with God who is the foundation of reality. Not only that, God is the way, the measure and the objective of truth. Without him, we can say whatever we like, but we can never be truthful. At best, he can only be partially truthful.

Truth will escape us. It slips away and can leave us only with its shell, its casing or packaging. That's when we would be most prone to play around with appearances to suit our convenience and preferences.

Let's remember that "not as man sees does God see, because he sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart." (1 Sam 16,7) We often misjudge, because we tend to be led only by looks, feelings, and other social and political conditionings.

Neither should we forget that the tricks of malice and deception can also be in play. Let's not forget the image of the wolf in sheep's clothing. Treachery and betrayal precisely make use of the appearances and forms of truth to strike a deadly lie.

Thus, we need to always pray, to stay in constant touch and conversation with God. We need to develop virtues relentlessly, like tact and discretion, prudence and justice, etc. We need to avail of the sacraments, since it is through them that we receive the vital impulses of God's grace. We need to thoroughly study the doctrine of our faith, and form our conscience accordingly.

Only in this way can we be truthful, always combining truth with charity. And with charity, we can expect to develop all other qualities proper to our dignity as persons and children of God, brothers and sisters among ourselves.

These qualities can be a keen sense of justice and solidarity, mercy and magnanimity, quickness to forgive and forget, as well as to repair whatever damage is done, to heal whatever wound is inflicted.

There will be a great leap in peace, unity and harmony in the family and in society in general. Affection, understanding and compassion will flourish. The proper development of man in all his aspects would be on track.

That's because when we put God in the middle of our effort to be truthful, then we cannot help but resemble ourselves more and more like him, in whose image and likeness we have been created.

That's when we can really say that the truth will make us free, will make us love authentically, since love is the supreme expression of freedom. Truth is the way to freedom and love, and to God himself, but always through the cross.