Hypocrisy and Lies, Mother and Daughter
Fire is produced from stone and steel; lying comes from loquacity and gossip. And the lie destroys love.
No one who has any sense would say that telling lies is not an important sin. The Holy Spirit has severely condemned it. ‘You destroy those that speak lies,’ says David to God. [Ps 5:7]
The mother of lying is hypocrisy, mother and also, often, its substance as well. Hypocrisy in fact works out the lie beforehand and then puts it into practice.
Those who possess the fear of God are the furthest from telling lies, because they have an honest judge, their own conscience.
As with all the passions, we ought to recognize various types of lying according to the damage done. One person tells lies from fear of punishment; another when no danger is threatening; another because of conceit; another for enjoyment; another to raise a laugh; and yet another to do harm to his neighbour.
A child does not know what a lie is, so his soul is free of malice.
Someone who is elated with wine speaks the truth on all subjects, even without meaning to. In the same way, anyone who is inebriated with the spirit of penitence will never be able to tell lies.
John Climacus
Stairway to Paradise, 12 (PG88, 853)
Are You Demanding Justice?
How can you raise your hands to heaven and move your lips to ask forgiveness for yourselves? God would be ready to forgive your sins, but you are preventing him by not forgiving your brothers and sisters their sins.
You say to me: ‘They are brutal, they are violent, they behave in a way we simply must punish.’
But it is precisely for that reason that you ought to forgive them. Maybe you are suffering a thousand wrongs at this moment. You have been robbed? You have been slandered? You want to see them punished. Then give your forgiveness instead. If you take the law into your own hands either in word or deed, God will not be concerned to give you your rights. You have already taken them for yourselves. Not only will God not give you your rights. He will punish you for having offended him.
So it is rash to demand your rights on your own account, especially when the judge is God.
Go down on your knees before him. He will solve your problem better than you could. He has bidden you only to pray for the one who has done you wrong. As far as the treatment of this fellow is concerned, he has told you to leave all action to him, and to him alone.
John Chrysostom
Sermon to the People of Antioch, 20, 3ff. (PG49, 202)
~ Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain, A Patristic Breviary: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
