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“Beware of false prophets,” were the words addressed by Our Lord on one occasion to His disciples. This warning is peculiarly timely in our own day and, in the first place to unsuspicious, inexperienced girls. The number of false prophets is legion at the present time. In private and in public life, in families and communities, in church and state, everywhere false prophets seem to abound. False prophets tempt you from without: these are the numerous heretical, false opinions and maxims of worldly men. False prophets tempt you also from within: your own evil passions and unruly desires. I purpose to-day to single out one only of these false prophets and to expose it in all its hideous deceitfulness. I refer to the opinion, so widely spread, that it is not so very wrong to tell a lie, that under certain circumstances it is necessary to do so. My dear child, beware of adopting this opinion. It is a false prophet. I will tell you why.
Both reason and religion teach, that even the least, the most unimportant lie is sinful, and therefore forbidden. You know that God is infinitely truthful. He is the very Truth itself. Therefore He hates, abhors, and positively forbids every lie. “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,” we read in Holy Scripture; this means that God abhors every one who tells a lie. Who was the first liar? The devil in paradise, and by his falsehoods he led our first parents to sin and plunged them into misery. Whose example does the liar follow, whom does he resemble? He who tells a lie, by so doing takes a step further away from God and from heaven, a step nearer to the devil and to hell.
Thus does the liar disfigure his soul and render it unsightly; it becomes unlike to God, like to the enemy. Therefore, Scripture says again: “A lie is a foul blot in a man.” As a black spot of ink disfigures a beautiful white garment, so does a lie disfigure the soul of him who utters it. It rests on his soul like a black spot, a mark of shame, for he must be ashamed of it.
Every one esteems an honest, straightforward man, but he who is false and deceitful is avoided and despised. Even when he does speak the truth, he is not believed. How frequently one hears the remark: “It is impossible to trust So-and-So; he is always ready to lie and deceive.” Would you like to be spoken of in this way? Then take care never to depart from the truth.
God punishes lying very severely; remember Ananias and Saphira, of whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles. The saints were always truthful and all conscientious persons carefully abstain from lying. Here is an example. A certain man was an accomplice in the commission of a crime. When examined before a magistrate, he pleaded an alibi, asserting that he was at home at the time the deed was done. His daughter was a good, honest girl, and he wanted her to bear witness to the fact. She was perfectly aware that by making a false deposition she could most probably save her father from prison; she was urged by threats and persuasions to do this. Yet she remained firm, saying once and again: “I will not lie; it is a sin to tell a lie.”
How differently do most people speak and act! They do not scruple to tell a lie, especially if by so doing they do not injure any one. Many children are inclined to tel lies. The little creatures are always ready with a falsehood, in order to escape punishment. What is the cause of this? It is inherent in our fallen nature, the consequence of original sin, but it depends to a great extent on the parents and elder brothers and sisters of the child. They play the part of false prophets, for they think nothing of telling lies themselves, and do not, therefore, chastise a child for telling them. If it breaks a plate or a pane of glass, if it loses a few cents, its short-sighted mother beats it unmercifully; but if she catches it telling a lie, she is much too kind to dream of using the rod. Thus is the tendency to lying nourished and increased in the childish heart.
How easily do grown-up persons persuade themselves that it is an absolute impossibility always to speak the truth? The greater number of tradespeople, nearly all of them indeed, adopt the maxim of the false prophets, and assert that without telling lies they could not exist. They say: “The world is full of deceit; all who are engaged in commerce act as we do, and if we did not depart from the truth now and then, we could make no profits!” The world is changed, they say. But has God altered His command; has He given men permission to lie for the sake of gain? But every one acts in this manner! If every one tells lies and offends almighty God, is this any reason why we should follow this bad example?
Others, again, follow false prophets in holding the opinion that a lie is perfectly justifiable under certain circumstances. One r another is heard to say: “I know that I do occasionally depart from the truth, but only in order to maintain peace at home, or with my neighbors, to avoid quarrels and strife, to save some one from incurring grievous suspicion, to protect her from harm, etc., and surely in such cases as these it cannot be wrong to tell a lie, but on the contrary, it must be perfectly justifiable!” Yet in every one of these cases lying is sinful and reprehensible; it is impossible to imagine circumstances in which it is allowable to utter a barefaced lie. This is not my personal opinion alone; it is the doctrine and teaching of the holiest and most learned men, of St. Augustine for instance; it is the doctrine of all Christians, the view taken by all right-minded men. No sophistries, no ingenious arguments can hold good in the face of this fact; they are and remain the views of false prophets. Therefore beware of them!
Is one on this account compelled at all times and under all circumstances to utter the naked truth? Between telling the whole truth and telling an untruth there is an outlet. Let me relate a well-known anecdote which will explain my meaning. The great Bishop St. Athanasius was persecuted for the faith. He was sailing up the Nile with some trusty friends to escape from his pursuers, when a vessel containing the persecuting band met them. The soldiers on board, who did not know Athanasius by sight, hailed them, and asked the attendants of the bishop whether they had seen him. “Oh yes,” was the prompt reply, “we saw him just now; he is quite near; if you row on as fast as you can you will easily capture him.” Now this speech was not untrue, yet it was the means of saving Athanasius. In the same way it is permissible to make use of an evasion, when some great temporal or spiritual good is at stake. Be honest and truthful; thus you will please God and win the respect of men.
O God, from falsehood and from wile
Keep Thou my conscience pure;
An honest heart that knows no guile
Is of Thy mercy sure.