Truth Is God!

Saturday, June 15, 2024

1 Kgs 19:19-21; Mt 5:33-37

In today’s Gospel, Jesus highlights that honoring God begins with speaking truth. 

What looks like a passage on not swearing in God’s name or not taking God’s name in vain ends up accentuating that glorifying God is manifested in our commitment to truth. 

In Jesus’ view, we avoid making promises only by truth-speaking. 

In this sense, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ uttered in truth is not just an individual word but a complete sentence unto itself. 

The fact that God is honored through truth can be contrasted with the falsehood that led to the Fall of the first parents in the Garden of Eden. 

When the serpent said to Eve, ‘You will not certainly die’ (Gen 3:4), it tempted her to disobey the command of God through falsehood. 

While the Scriptural text confirms that falsehood or lying dishonors God, Jesus’ teaching reminds us of Gandhi’s convictions on Truth as God. 

Though Gandhi believed early on in his life that the statement ‘God is Truth’ offered the right definition of God, his understanding evolved through his experiments with truth. Hence, he reversed his definition of God when he said, ‘I have come to the conclusion that the definition ‘Truth is God’ gives me the greatest satisfaction.’

Jesus invites us to find God in truth without ever taking God’s name in vain through promises. 

For Jesus, truth-speaking not only avoids making false promises but also glorifies God. 

We honor God through our commitment to truth. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar