Is anyone confusing you into believing a lie
and compromising your values?
What is the hardest substance in the universe?
In John 8:51-59, Jesus is accused of being possessed. In effect, the Jewish leaders are calling Him a liar because of the claims He is making about His relationship with God. Jesus turns that around and identifies them as at the real liars. But is that fair? They truly believe their analysis of the situation is accurate. They're not deliberately lying.
The hardest substance in the universe is truth. It cannot be changed. It cannot be dented. It cannot be remolded into a different shape. It cannot be chiseled away or eroded into something less than what it started out to be. No matter what we believe, the truth remains constant and is not affected by anyone -- not by our desire to rationalize away wrong choices nor by the whims of society's ever-changing moods.
Therefore, anyone who believes an alteration of the truth is believing a counterfeit -- a lie. And everyone who professes one of the counterfeits is a liar, even if they feel absolutely convinced that their version of the lie is the truth. A lie does not become a truth just because we think it's truth.
This is good news, because since truth is unchangeable, and since God only speaks truth, we know that whatever He promises in His Word is unchangeable. We can rely on Him with absolute certainty.
In Genesis 17:3-9, God initiates His covenant with us. And in Psalm 105:4-9, "He remembers forever His covenant which He made binding for a thousand generations." To the Hebrews, "a thousand" meant "infinite" or "many, many, many, beyond counting."
His covenant with us is a truth that cannot be changed. If we keep our end of the covenant by obeying His commandments, we benefit from His end of the covenant by receiving His true love. When we break the covenant, it's because we've accepted a counterfeit.
Imagine that the Kingdom of God is a castle with a moat around it. The castle is God's covenant with us. When we move into the castle, God protects us from the evil monsters that live on the other side of the moat. He teaches us, He gives us great friends and good uses for our talents and He showers us with gifts just for the pleasure of watching us get excited about His generosity.
However, the view outside the castle looks very interesting. So we go out to explore. Soon, we begin to believe what we hear in that world, because it seems to make sense. Then a monster, which has disguised itself as a good friend (another lie), convinces us to do something that is contrary to the rules of the castle. In disobeying the King, we break our covenant with Him. We can no longer see the drawbridge that leads back to the castle.
The more lies we believe, the harder it gets to see the truth. If we're still living with the monsters when we die, we've become so used to their lies that we choose to stay with them for all eternity, which is hell.
But the King doesn't want that to happen. He weeps for us. He sends His holy Son into the defilement to rescue us. The monsters don't want the Son to reach us, so they kill Him. But the King brings the Son back to life, and this resurrection means that the monsters don't have any power Him.
The Son chases after us, finding us no matter where we're hiding or how ugly and unrecognizable we've become. He invites us to go back home with Him. He begins to clean us up by washing our feet. He tells us that to get back to the castle, all we have to do is to follow our inner longing to live with the King and stay where the truth is really the truth.
Whether we've separated ourselves from God in little ways or big ways, believing little lies or big lies, we are not truly happy until we are fully at home with the King. Are you ready to turn away from the counterfeits? The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available at your parish for renewing the covenant.
© 2002 by Terry A. Modica
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