Truth and consequence.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Fr. Jerry M. Orbos, SVD

THE STORY is told about a newly wed couple who lived a blissful life together. The husband would go to work each morning, and when he came home from work, their dog would come out barking and the wife would come out right away to welcome him and bring his slippers. After some years of marriage, the husband still went to work, and when he came home from work, the wife would come out barking and their dog would bring the slippers!

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In today's Gospel (Lk. 4, 21-30) Jesus went back to His hometown and was welcomed by his town mates. All agreed with Him and all were amazed at His wisdom. However, they began to bark at Him when He started to disturb their comfortable, clannish and exclusive zones. But, Jesus went on and spoke His truth anyway. He said what had to be said, and He did not care who got hurt in the process, even if that meant Him getting hurt. For Jesus, truth was not something to hide, use, abuse or manipulate. For Jesus, truth was non-negotiable. Truth was not relative to His fame or shame. Look at truth being tossed around and beaten up these days. And look at all the liars all around us. Everybody knows they are lying, yet they get away with it. Lying is the easy way out, but Jesus teaches us today that being truthful is the only way to go into God's heart.

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Today, let us all ask God for forgiveness for our lies, pretenses and manipulations, especially for those times we justified these for the sake of survival, and even in God's name. Let us ask God to forgive us for the times we lied and convinced ourselves that it was all right. The tragedy is not in the lying but in the perpetuation of the lying, and comforting ourselves with the thought that it's okay, and it's all right.