Ordinary Time - Week 06a

Sincerity

(From Conversation with God, Fernandez Carvajal)

In order to live a life which is truly human, we must have a great love for the truth, which in a way is something that is sacred and must be treated with respect and love. The truth is sometimes so obscured by sin, by our passions and by a spirit of materialism, that if we did not live it we could never come to discern it. it is so easy to accept a lie when it comes to the aid of our laziness, flatters our vanity or our sensuality, or encourages in us a false sense of prestige! Sometimes the cause of insincerity is vainglory, pride, or even a fear of looking foolish.

Our Lord lived this virtue so much that he declared of himself, I am the Truth. The devil, He said, is a liar and the father of lies. Everything the devil promises is false. Jesus will ask the Father for us, for his own, that we may be sanctified in the truth.

There is a great deal of talk to-day about sincerity, authenticity and so on, but despite it people tend to hide themselves in anonymity and often disguise the true motives for their actions and conceal them from themselves and from others. They also try to remain anonymous before God, and flee from any personal encounter with him in prayer and in their examination of conscience. Nevertheless we will not be good Christians if we are not sincere with ourselves, with God and with other people. We men are sometimes afraid of the truth because it is demanding and inexorable. Sometimes the temptation may come to us to resort to pretence, to a small deception, to a half-truth or even a lie. On other occasions we may feel tempted to give another name to facts or to things so as not to upset people by telling the truth as it is.

Sincerity is a Christian virtue of the highest order; we could not be good Christians if we did not live it with all its consequences. Sincerity with ourselves leads us to acknowledge our faults without any pretence and without seeking false excuses. Sincerity puts us on our guard against 'fabricating' the truth, or pretending that what suits us is true, like those who try to deceive themselves by saying that 'for them' something forbidden by God's law is not a sin. Subjectivity, our passions, lukewarmness, can all contribute towards our not being sincere with ourselves. The person who does not live this radical sincerity easily deforms his conscience and falls victim to interior blindness as regards the things of God.

Sincerity with God, with ourselves and with other people. If we are not sincere with God we cannot love him or serve him. If we are not sincere with ourselves we can not have a well-formed conscience which loves good and shuns evil. If we are not sincere with other people it becomes impossible for us in any meaningful way to relate to them, and we do not please God.