‘Yes’ or ‘No’ OR  ‘Yes’ and ‘No’

“What you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘ No’”( Mt. 5.37).  Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount calls us to be people of integrity and honesty, to be  persons of value and conviction, to say, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ and not both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. Jesus warns us against taking oath and swearing. We take oath  often to convince others that we are credible, to tell the audience our words can be trusted. Yet, can our words be trusted? Have we kept our oaths and our vows?  Both, the one who speaks for the motion and one against, take the oath. What is truth for one is lie for the other. Can both be right?  Can black and white coexist? Leaders who take oath to defend the Constitution, are the first ones to break it. People who make vow to be poor are often richer than those who don’t take the vow. One takes oath often to conceal a lie. Truth is so rare.

Jesus was plainly honest. He spoke the truth whether in front of Pilate or the Pharisees. He could have escaped death by explaining away some of the misunderstandings. Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?”. Jesus was silent, and looked at Pilate. In that look and silence Pilate saw the Truth though he was not ready to accept it. Jesus did not give two hours of lecture on what is truth. Truth is grasped oftener than not in silence. Too many words are often an indication of a lie.  Truth needs no defense. It is its own defense. One who is in the truth needs no fear. Only one who lives the lie, needs News Channels and bellowing anchors to shout and drown the truth in noisy arguments and many words. 

St Francis of Assisi used to tell his followers, “Preach always, and use words only when it is a must”. Jesus told his disciples, “As you go, preach that the kingdom has come”. The person is the message. The kingdom is as close to people as they are. One preaches by one’s witness. A person’s life is the truth. When there is contradiction between words and body language, the body is the truth. Words often only distract. Too many words, too long preaching, and raising of one’s voice can be indications of something to hide, of duplicity and insincerity.  

The word ‘sincerity’ comes from two Latin words, ‘sine’ which means ‘without’ and ‘cera’ which means wax. In earlier days when Romans made marble statues, as they chipped at the  marble sometimes cracks occurred and to hide the crack they used wax. To be sincere means, to be people who are without wax, without a crack, no duplicity and nothing to hide. You are what you say.

In one of the Psalms, the Psalmist prays to be delivered from those “whose lips utter blessing, but in their heart they curse”. This is duplicity. This is what it means to live a lie, saying one thing and living another, having a blessing on their lips and a curse in their heart, like Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss or like the pharisees who address Jesus as ‘ Master and Lord’, while they are on a mission to catch and kill.

With Psalmist let us also pray that we too be saved from those whose lips utter blessing but in their heart they curse. Let us be people without wax. Let us live the truth and not a lie. Let our words have a meaning and not just empty phrases. Let our words be ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ and not ‘Yes’ and ‘No’.

-Fr T.V.George sdb