TRUTH NOT TO BE SHARED ALWAYS

Since long, a phrase, psychologically and spiritually insightful, has got stuck in my head: “Do not judge others and make presumptions about their intentions.” So, we must watch what we say, because we sin to tell the truth. We lie through our truth and do not respect others. Two big sins according to the Catholic traditions are calumny and detraction. Calumny, a favourite pastime of most human beings criticizing others, while sounding creamy, is essentially a lie about someone, and it damages the other’s reputation by falsifying someone’s innocence.

 By detraction, we malign someone by revealing his/her fault by telling the truth. But who gives me the right to reveal a fault of another to someone else?  Does he have a right to know about the fault or crime that another has committed? In both cases therefore, we commit an offense “against the virtues of justice and charity” (CCC 2479). Of course, faults and crimes need to be exposed, when someone needs to be made aware of what affects them directly. In fact, a complicit silence would be a sin if something is not exposed. But, that too depends on what and how much we say. Bible says, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless” (James 1:26). This involves discernment.       

Besides, detraction is a devious sin, when we easily rationalize in telling the truth, that it is okay because others “need to know” what we know. We delight in disclosing the moral failures of others whom we dislike. It is a result of pride and egotism: one feels elevated by putting down someone else. 

The Catechism teaches us a lesson for our spiritual life: “To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbour’s thoughts, words, and deeds, in a favourable way” (CCC 2478).  “But if he cannot do so, let him ask how the other understands it. And if the latter understands it badly, let the former correct him with love. If that does not suffice, let the Christian try all suitable ways to bring the other to a correct interpretation so that he may be saved” (St. Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises 22). It demands grace and mortification to do so, at least for the sake of the person before whom we are critiquing about someone else. In detracting, we’re not just committing personal sin, we’re killing the soul of the person to whom we’re speaking: “The detractor, by one blow of his tongue, commonly commits three murders; he kills his own soul, and the soul of him who listens, and by a spiritual homicide takes away the civil life of the person whom he slanders” (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life Ch. 29). 

Certainly, sometimes we need to blow the whistle. Injustices need to be exposed and fought. But we have to do it the right way through discernment. Other person's sin should not become the occasion for destroying our own standing with God. Detraction or calumny hardly have stopped someone from defaulting. We only shoot ourselves in the ‘spiritual foot’. Instead, it is good to take the occasion as a turning a mirror on ourselves, to see what is still unseen and ask: Why do we find the faults of others annoying? Why does that ‘deed’ of a confrere provoke us? The short answer is: it reminds us of a similar failing in ourselves. It is good to recount in detail the characteristics that made a person so obnoxious to us, then go back to our room and ask God to forgive those same faults in ourselves. 

God knows everything happening around, every injustice and evil. “Nothing is covered that will not be revealed” (Mt 10:26). Who am I to judge and be the jury, in situations where we have no power to ‘correct’? The Bible says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged… Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (Mt 7:1-6)). Becoming a hyper-critical person will have its terrible consequences: will be hard to be around such a person. Before judging we must practise the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mt 7:12). Similar statements were found earlier:  “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you” (Confucius, Analects 15.23 – 5th century BC). “Do not unto others that which would cause you pain if done to you” (Mahabharata 5, 1517 – 15th century BC). Well, this rule should not be used to substantiate unrestrained moral freedom, autonomy, and independence. Jesus’ intent was not advocating a free rein on moral accountability, not using moral judgments by our God-gifted intellectual reasons. On the contrary, Jesus was exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who were quick to accuse the other while refuse to hold themselves accountable to the same standard they were imposing on everyone else. 

When we cannot right a wrong, we can just pray.  Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Mt 5:44). Wielding the grace of God affects far more than our judgement. Because the life’s goal isn't justice, it’s liberation. Thus, we promote a little more peace and harmony in the world. “He who could deliver the world from detraction would free it from a great part of the sins of iniquity” (Francis de Sales).