Do You Lie Against Others? How and Why To Preserve Truth.

kanozas

se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
I love this part of the catechism because it explains so very plainly why not to lie. It is against truth and its effects harm others.

III. OFFENSES AGAINST TRUTH
2475 Christ's disciples have "put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."274 By "putting away falsehood," they are to "put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander."275
2476 False witness and perjury. When it is made publicly, a statement contrary to the truth takes on a particular gravity. In court it becomes false witness.276 When it is under oath, it is perjury. Acts such as these contribute to condemnation of the innocent, exoneration of the guilty, or the increased punishment of the accused.277 They gravely compromise the exercise of justice and the fairness of judicial decisions.
2477 Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury.278 He becomes guilty:
- of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor;
- of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another's faults and failings to persons who did not know them;279
- of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.
2478 To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor's thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way:

Every good Christian ought to be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another's statement than to condemn it. 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.280 2479 Detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one's neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity, and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name and reputation and to respect. Thus, detraction and calumny offend against the virtues of justice and charity.
2480 Every word or attitude is forbidden which by flattery, adulation, or complaisance encourages and confirms another in malicious acts and perverse conduct. Adulation is a grave fault if it makes one an accomplice in another's vices or grave sins. Neither the desire to be of service nor friendship justifies duplicitous speech. Adulation is a venial sin when it only seeks to be agreeable, to avoid evil, to meet a need, or to obtain legitimate advantages.
2481 Boasting or bragging is an offense against truth. So is irony aimed at disparaging someone by maliciously caricaturing some aspect of his behavior.
2482 "A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving."281 The Lord denounces lying as the work of the devil: "You are of your father the devil, . . . there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."282
2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error. By injuring man's relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.
2484 The gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims. If a lie in itself only constitutes a venial sin, it becomes mortal when it does grave injury to the virtues of justice and charity.
2485 By its very nature, lying is to be condemned. It is a profanation of speech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to others. The deliberate intention of leading a neighbor into error by saying things contrary to the truth constitutes a failure in justice and charity. The culpability is greater when the intention of deceiving entails the risk of deadly consequences for those who are led astray.
 
With that said, we can all become the victims of liars and even those who accuse of lying. But the onus of correcting their spreading misinformation is not on us. In other words, when you live the truth, whether another believes it, agrees with it, likes it, is jealous by it, curses it or not, has no personal, spiritual bearing upon us as in some individual fault. To perjure is to lie on purpose. From that, many others spread misinformation that can hurt the reputation of an innocent. From the tongue comes death. We have a strict commandment. No. Six:

“You shall not murder." It also applies to speaking evil and lying. Let us be careful about the lies and misinformation we propagate against others. Let's also be careful about the evil of jealousy because many lies originate in coveting something belonging to another.
 
kanozas...

This is amazing. Thank you very much for sharing this. We live in a time when false witnesses bear against us and/or vice versa.

This message speaks to it and to our hearts. Thank you, again and again.

:grouphug2:
 
Yes, detraction in particular is a transgression that I think we easily overlook because it's not lying but just telling something true about someone that really doesn't need to be shared with others. And the pretense of spiritual concern can easily deceive.
 
^^@nicola.kirwan Lies kill another person's good name. I'm not sure about the focus of your last sentence, though.

We should all be careful about what we say, think and believe about others. Death and life are in the tongue. Anyone can make an honest mistake in what they perceive and heard to be the truth but once it crosses the line of untruth and is knowingly spread as the untruth, it's a huge problem. There are countless examples of such related to this very forum.
 
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