Saturday, June 29, 2013
521. What is one’s duty toward the truth? (part 2 continuation)
“In brief”
(CCC 2504) "You shall
not bear false witness against your neighbor" (Ex 20:16). Christ's
disciples have "put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in
true righteousness and holiness" (Eph 4:24).
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 2467) Man tends by nature toward the truth. He is
obliged to honor and bear witness to it: "It is in accordance with their
dignity that all men, because they are persons… are both impelled by their nature
and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth.
They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct
their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth" (DH 2 § 2). (CCC 2468) Truth as
uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the
virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words,
and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.
Reflection
(CCC 2469) "Men could not live with one another if
there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one
another" (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh
II-II 109, 3 ad 1). The virtue of truth gives another his just due.
Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what ought to be expressed and what
ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty and discretion. In justice,
"as a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the
truth" (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh
II-II, 109, 3, corp. Art). (CCC 2470) The disciple of Christ consents to
"live in the truth," that is, in the simplicity of a life in
conformity with the Lord's example, abiding in his truth. "If we say we
have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live
according to the truth" (1 Jn 1:6). [END]
(Next question: How does
one bear witness to the truth?)
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