| Msgr. Peter J. Vaghi
Title of Series: "Moral Life: Living the Hope Within Us"
Part 8: "The Eighth Commandment: The Truth Will Set You Free"
April 30th, 2009
First Thursday
The concepts of freedom and truth (or honesty) are as American as apple pie. We speak of “Honest Abe.” Or Mark Twain reported to have said: “When in doubt, tell the truth.” In courts, one swears to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Truth is as the heart of the adversarial system in the court room where the entire purpose of all the procedural safeguards is to get at the truth.
By happy providence, this First Friday marks the celebration of St. Joseph the Worker. In Cusdos Redemptoris, (Guardian of the Redeemer), we read that: “the Gospels do not record any word ever spoken by Joseph along that way. But the silence of Joseph has its own special eloquence, for thanks to that silence we can understand the truth of the Gospel's judgment that he was "a just man" (Mt 1:19). “ (17) Even in silence, there is a truth. Words are not the only medium of truth. Witness is and sometimes witness radiates the credibility of a truth, a freeing truth, more than words themselves.
This is by way of introduction to the eighth commandment-- “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Ex20:16; Deut 5: 20. Combining both truth and freedom, I have entitled this meditation on the eighth commandment “The Truth Will Set You Free.”
As has been our approach with the other commandments, I will continue with our three-fold analysis: l.) The Hebrew Understanding of the Commandment; 2.) The Effect of the Christ Event on the Commandment and 3.) Some Practical Implications for our Day
l.) The Hebrew Understanding
From the very first book of the Old Testament, we learn that “scripture is quite clear about the evil of lying. The very first sin recorded in the Bible, the disobedience of Adam and Eve, was occasioned by the serpent’s lie: ‘You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods…’ (Genesis 3:4b-5a). From that moment on, the devil, personified in the garden by the serpent, is called the ‘father of lies’ (see John 8:44)” ( Alfred McBride, The Ten Commandments, Sounds of Love from Sinai, 115)
At its heart, however, in the Hebrew mind, the eighth commandment was originally a forensic commandment or one related to legal proceedings or debate. Its setting was the courtroom. It was a commandment whose purpose was directed primarily towards guarding the basic right of the covenant member against the threat of a false accusation. It dealt with the obligation of a witness in a court of law. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth was required of every witness under the Jewish legal system. In fact, the Jewish law took great pains to insure that such legal testimony was reliable and true. The Hebrew word for truth, emeth, “refers to truth in words and truthfulness in deeds.” USCCA 431
Regarding the number of witnesses and the fate of a false witness, Deuteronomy 19:15-21 is quite clear:
“One witness alone shall not take the stand against a man in regard to any crime or any offense of which he may be guilty; a judicial fact shall be established only on the testimony of two or three witnesses. If an unjust witness takes the stand against a man to accuse him of a defection from the law, the two parties in the dispute shall appear before the Lord in the presence of the priests or judges in office at that time; and if after a thorough investigation the judges find that the witness is a false witness and has accused his kinsman falsely, you shall do to him as he planned to do to his kinsman. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. The rest, on hearing of it, shall fear, and never again do a thing so evil among you. Do not look on such a man with pity. Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.”
The Hebrew trial procedure depended heavily upon the testimony of witnesses and made little use of physical evidence. The concurring testimony of two witnesses was sufficient to convict a person of a crime. The rule invited abuse, however, by those who stood to gain from another’s injury. Hence there was the need for this protective commandment in the covenant community. There were widespread abuses, nevertheless.
The story of Susanna who was accused of adultery is a classic example of abuse. Two witnesses were found to have testified falsely against her. “The whole assembly cried aloud, blessing God who saves those that hope in him. They rose up against the two elders, for by their own words Daniel had convicted them of perjury. According to the law of Moses, they inflicted on them the penalty they had plotted to impose on their neighbor: they put them to death. Thus was innocent blood spared that day.” Dn 13:60-62 “‘Your fine lie has cost you also your head,’ said Daniel; ‘for the angel of God waits with a sword to cut you in two so as to make an end of you both.’” Dn 13: 59
A more familiar example is from I Kings 21. It is the story of the trial of Naboth--a vivid example of the violent possibilities when the court is perverted by lying witnesses. The story involves Ahab, the king of Israel, his Phoenician wife Jezebel and a man named Naboth. When Naboth refuses Ahab’s offer to purchase the former’s vineyard, Jezebel arranges to have false charges brought against Naboth, accusing him of cursing both God and King. As punishment, Naboth is stoned to death and Ahab takes possession of Naboth’s vineyard--a clear violation of the eighth commandment against bearing false witnesses against your neighbor.
Moreover, the Wisdom literature from the Psalms and Proverbs is replete with examples of the condemnation of false and malicious witnesses. One of the six things the Lord hates is “the false witness who utters lies.” (Proverbs 6:19) For the Psalmist, one of the most bitter attacks against him includes “malicious and lying witnesses [who] have risen against [him].” Psalm 27:12 “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who are truthful are his delight.” (Proverbs 12:22) From Sirach 20:25 we read: “A liar’s way leads to dishonor, his shame remains ever with him.”
Above all, it is the court of law which is the place where truth or falsehood was determined. It was, for the Hebrew, the place from which the blessing of truth and corruption of falsehood originated and from which it spread to the people and to his neighbors. It shows how important the Hebrew’s neighbor was to him in the question of truth-- “neighbor” being one with full citizenship in the covenant community. It is tempting to speak of the eighth commandment as having a paradigmatic character, I.e. one who is truthful in court would be truthful in other spheres of life.
But there is a deeper religious basis to the eighth commandment--a basis that links it, as with all the commandments, to the covenant itself. Integrity and honesty, after all, were required in the covenant community. To lie or bring false charges violated faithfulness to God and neighbor and was thus violative of the eighth commandment. Daily life would be deleteriously affected where transparency and honesty in personal relationships were jeopardized even and particularly apart from legal proceedings.
Serious and destructive perversions of the truth would thus damage the life of the community and would undercut how free people should be living together in harmony and honesty.
Hence, the eighth commandment as it developed over time--and as it came to be understood by the Hebrew mind--included a more general injunction against lying and on behalf of truth telling. The Old Testament does indeed expand the force of this commandment by connecting the witness in the court with the more general practices of lying and particularly of slander.
II.) The Effect of the Christ Event
“In Jesus Christ, the whole of God’s truth has been made manifest.” CCC 2466 The word “truth,” the underlying value of the eighth commandment, is another Name for Jesus Himself. Truth becomes personalized in Him, in His very Person. Jesus teaches after all: “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me.” Jn 14:6 We read further in the first letter of John: “
those who say, ‘I know him,’ but do not keep his commandments are liars, and the truth is not in them.” 1 John 2: 4
In the Sermon on the Mount, where He repeatedly stretched, radicalized and internalized aspects of the Mosaic Law, Jesus clearly indicates His unconditional love for the truth. In Mt 5:37, He states: “Say, ‘yes’ when you mean ‘yes’ and ‘no’ when you mean ‘no.’ Anything beyond that is from the evil one.” Speaking of the evil one, in Jn 8:44, Jesus says: “He brought death to man from the beginning, and has never based himself on the truth; the truth is not in him. Lying speech is his native tongue; he is a liar and the father of lies.” In Colossians 3:9, St. Paul discouraged lying: “Stop lying to one another.” In Ephesians 4:25, the same Paul exhorted the early Christian community, and us as well, to “speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
About Himself, Jesus says: “I am...the truth.” Note the contrast then--the evil one is the father of lies and Jesus is the Truth. Jesus not only is in possession of the truth. Jesus personifies the truth. He personalizes the eighth commandment. In His very person, He is the truth.
But what does this mean? Much can be said about the meaning of truth. Historical truth means that something really happened in reality in a certain way at a certain time in history. For philosophical truth, it means the highest reality, the supreme being. But in Jn14, when Jesus says He is the truth, or when in Jn 18:37-38 in His dialogue with Pilate who asked rhetorically what is truth, Jesus says--speaking of truth, “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.”
But what does this truth mean--this truth about which Jesus identifies His very person and mission? Simply stated: it is the revealing, the unpacking, the manifestation of God’s plan in Jesus. Truth, in this context, is the divine secret revealed--the revelation of the mystery of salvation in Jesus Christ, God’s unconditional love for us, and our possibility to become children of God forever, to share in His divine life, all made possible by the life, death, resurrection of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
It is this Truth, the life that Jesus is and brings to us, which sets us free, makes us different kinds of people. Although we live daily with the consequences of original sin--we fall, we doubt, we have our fears--the Truth we share in Jesus, i.e. His very life, enables us to live in hope and to live differently. In his historic visit to Washington last year, Benedict XVI reiterated a line from his famous encyclical on hope: “The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.” (SS 2)
In Jn 8:32, Jesus tells us the truth, His truth, that the truth about Him “will set us free”--free from sin, from fears, ultimately from death. It is the distinct benefit of belonging to Christ who is the Truth. It is the distinct benefit of being baptized into Christ and being literally plunged into the life of God. It is Easter life. What are the implications of this new way of life?
In St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we read language referring to the Baptismal liturgy “…you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires,…and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth. Therefore, putting away falsehood, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” Eph 4:22, 24-5 Speaking the truth was thus linked to the new life in Christ, a life shared with others, the living body of Christ.
Fr. McBride writes that: “Paul considered this baptismal experience motivation to live an honest and truthful moral life, since the candidates belonged to humanity renewed in Christ. Behaving in an honest way towards one’s sisters and brothers in Christ was a sign that Christians appreciated what their new existence demanded. To lie was to act unfaithfully to a member of Christ’s body.” Alfred McBride, The Ten Commandments Covenant of Love, 152
There are further implications to this new way of life and the freedom we experience in Christ: “Truth makes us really free. The more people practice truthful living, the greater is their inner sense of liberation. This is not achieved easily nor quickly. The process of truthful living demands a lifetime of struggle and moral courage. Those engaged in this process experience it as worthwhile. Their remarkable sense of inner freedom testifies to us that truthful living is its own reward.”(Alfred McBride,The Ten Commandments Covenant of Love, 150)
This Truth, the Truth about Jesus, is also a challenge for us, each of us who is a member of His living body, the Church. It is the challenge to bear witness to that new life we share, His life, the Truth of His life. “Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity.” CCC 2473
Yes, it means living as if Jesus had and continues to have something to do with us. And He does. After all, He accepted suffering and death as part of the price of living the Truth. After His example, we too must give of ourselves. Only in giving of ourselves in love, as He did and does, do we discover our true selves and the Truth about our human condition and enjoy that deep inner freedom which each of us seeks.
His teaching, as challenging as it is and can be, really helps us to live differently, to act differently and to do it with hope, confidence and joy. This is all born of the power of God’s Holy Spirit within us and in fact made possible by the Holy Spirit living within us. “If you live according to my teaching, you are truly my disciples; then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Jn 8:31-32.
III. Some Practical Implications for our Day
The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults speaks of the challenge to tell the truth in our present cultural climate. It teaches us that “in our culture, relativism challenges our ability to tell the truth because it claims there is no objective truth. This attitude undermines the distinction between truth and lies; it leads to an environment of deceit. In such an atmosphere, even Christ’s teachings, based on divine truth, fail to persuade those whose trust in the possibility of objective truth has disappeared. This is the climate in which the Church needs to call people back to the reality of objective truth and to the link between doctrinal truth and everyday life.” USCCA 431 Implications of this analysis can be found in the op-ed pages of our newspapers, for example. The catechism teaches that “the more our culture has moved away from acceptance of objective truth, the more it has moved toward the culture of opinions.” USCCA 435 The culture of opinions has become effectively a national pastime. Where is it that we turn to objective truth, truth revealed by Truth Himself, other than Christ and His living body the Church? So often in our day it is hard to see that Truth, the Truth about the marriage between a man and a woman, the Truth about the openness to new life and the protection of all life from a tiny baby in the womb to a deadly criminal whose fate might too easily be the death chamber to an elderly person whose dignity might easily be overlooked and thus discarded. The Truth sets us free and it challenges us to see Truth and witnesses to the Truth in our culture.
The catechism gives us examples of individuals who valued truth so much that they were willing to die for it. To mention two such individuals, St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More “surrendered their lives rather than approve of the divorce of King Henry VIII or deny the truth that the pope is Christ’s appointed head of the Church.” USCCA 432 In effect, they died rather than go against their properly formed conscience, a conscience formed in them by Christ’s own truth. This challenge to conscience increasingly presents a challenge for each of us in our day and will regrettably present challenges for us in the days and years to come. Are we prepared to stand up for the Truth, the only Truth that truly sets us free?
On a more practical level, the catechism teaches: “Lying consists in saying what is false with the intention of deceiving one’s neighbor.” CCC 2508 Fr. Al McBride writes with a rather broad brush but with truth often hidden within his claims. He asserts that “spouses lie to each other. Children deceive their teachers. There are so many false claims in commercials that the government has established truth-in-advertising laws. Perjury in the courts is pervasive and dishonesty in the workplace is a fact of life. Clergy face malpractice suits for casual advice that their clients construe as deceit. Doctors use euphemisms to avoid telling patients the truth about their health and lawyers shroud truth in so many technicalities and evasions that a jury rightly wonders if they can ever get at the facts.” (Alfred McBride, The Ten Commandments Sounds of Love from Sinai, 114) I guess I would say, if the shoe fits, wear it.
Is it even possible then to live the 8th commandment in a culture that is so skeptical of the possibility to know the truth?
I would conclude that a life in Christ, a life in living His commandments, a life in repenting often of our sinfulness, a life of appropriating daily the life-giving teachings of our faith, a faith in the very Person of Jesus who describes Himself as the way, the truth and the life makes truth telling possible and even appealing. This is true even in our culture of relativism and skepticism but it takes more conscious efforts.
Speaking of truth, St. Augustine puts it succinctly and comprehensively: “When regard for truth has been broken down or even slightly weakened, all things remain doubtful.” In contrast, the Truth—i.e. life in Christ-- will set us free. Of this, there is no doubt.
Amen |
