Evading the Truth, Avoiding the Truth, Speaking the Truth in Love

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Our readings today begin with Jeremiah’s call from God to be a prophet. God’s word came to him:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

From before the moment of his conception, God had known and loved Jeremiah, and had given him a particular task, a particular vocation. We don’t hear the whole chapter of course, but Jeremiah objects at first… he says to God, “I’m too young, I don’t know what to say.” God is having none of it… “I will give you my words,” He tells him. God calls us and equips us to speak the truth in love. The prophetic mission has now come to all people in Jesus Christ. By our baptism we have become priests, prophets, and kings. We may not feel strong, or that we have the words, but God calls us all the same! We must speak the Truth of Jesus Christ to the world.

Very often, though, the world is resistant to hearing that truth. God is forthright with Jeremiah about the obstacles he will face. He tells Jeremiah that He will make him:

a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of brass, against the whole land: against Judah’s kings and princes, against its priests and people. They will fight against you but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

This is not going to be easy -Jeremiah will face resistance! God doesn’t tell him it will be a walk in the park… but he does tell him that He will make him strong in the face of rejection.

It is hard to hear the truth, we all have mechanisms to resist it. One of the most effective is to point out the weaknesses of the one bearing the message! When someone tells us a truth that is difficult to hear, we readily zoom in on their every flaw, using the messenger’s faults as an excuse to doubt the message.

Here we see the second half of the equation: as sharers in Christ’s prophetic mission, we must hear and speak the truth in love. If we don’t speak the truth in love, we don’t speak the truth. We’ve all used the truth as a stick to beat someone with, or been beaten with it ourselves. The truth abused in this fashion loses its truthfulness. The two must always go together: the truth told lovingly, and love offered in truthfulness. If we grasp one without the other, we necessarily lose both together.

Imagine a husband whose wife drinks too much. It would be very easy to fly off the handle and berate her and holler and tell her that she’s drinking too much. The statement might very well be accurate, but the unloving way in which it’s delivered would give the wife many excuses to ignore the message. The truth offered unlovingly is unlikely to be accepted, and in fact loses something of its truthfulness.

On the other hand, imagine a guy whose buddy is running around with another man’s wife. That’s a hard thing to challenge someone on, and it might seem that in friendship he shouldn’t judge. However, there’s no love in lying to someone, or in approving something false. If that friendship is to remain authentic, the issue must be raised, even if that’s difficult.

Imagine a mother whose daughter is planning to get married outside the Church, without the Church’s blessing. It would be relatively easy to hit either extreme… to quietly go along with a path that leads away from Communion, away from God’s grace, away from the faith, or to fly off the handle and alienate the daughter. With God’s grace, it might be possible to lovingly and gently challenge and invite her to reconsider. The result is not guaranteed, but the path of truthful love and loving honesty is the path we are each called to walk.

Paul captures this mystery beautifully in our second reading… a passage that may often provoke warm fuzziness, when it should really challenge us to take a tough look in the mirror and ask if we’re really loving in truth:

If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

As your pastor, this challenge is always before me: how do I teach you well, in the fullness of truth, and in the fullness of tender love? How do I address many of the lies that our culture tells us? To be silent is not an option, and yet I often see in my heart the fear of driving people away, or of stating the truth unlovingly.

Jesus Himself encountered this struggle… the people of his hometown were amazed at what he said, but they second-guessed it as well, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” They thought they knew all about Jesus and his family. When Jesus challenges them on this, rather than listen, they push back, they react with fury, and they try to kill him. Perhaps we’ve never lashed out violently at one bringing us a truthful message, but I think we can all identify the games we play to discredit or ignore a tough truth that strikes us to the heart.

This same dynamic is very much at play in our public moral conversation. If one has the courage to speak out on the tough issues of abortion, or same-sex marriage, or euthanasia, you run the very real risk of being called hateful, or judgmental, or a bigot, or hard-hearted. It certainly possible to speak of these issues in an unloving way, but it is also clear that the issues themselves are not being addressed in all the name-calling.

May we ask the Lord today for the gift of hearts open to the truth, even when it is difficult or painful to hear, especially when it calls us to personal conversion and growth. Receiving the Word, receiving Jesus Christ who is Himself the Truth, may we be emboldened and empowered to speak the truth tenderly and lovingly. May we be messengers of God, and may our deeds and words speak of Him and His loving truth and mercy.

+ A. M. D. G. +