simple truth

let us approach with a true heart
in full assurance of faith
HEBREWS 10:22

We may be true or false, the choice is ours. We may wear now one mask and now another, and never, if we so desire, appear with our own true face. But we cannot make these choices with impunity. Causes have effects, and if we lie to ourselves and to others, then we cannot expect to find truth and reality whenever we happen to want them. If we have chosen the way of falsity we must not be surprised that truth eludes us when we finally come to need it!
THOMAS MERTON, New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 34

Most of us are not methodical or malicious about our falsehoods, but we do have our reasons for not acknowledging the whole truth. The truth may indeed be simple, but often it is a far from simple thing to tell and live the truth.

The truth may make us uncomfortable because it might mean owning up to our shortcomings or the ways we have wounded others. The whole truth may be difficult because it means we must risk something to tell it. Perhaps it will mean we must stand alone, like that small child in the crowd in Hans Christian Anderson's tale who points out what everyone else is too scared or too duped to admit: the emperor has no clothes.

Or, perhaps we struggle with the whole truth because we know full well that in telling it, and living it, we will need to change.

So we massage the truth. We tell it in part or we tell half-truths and partial fibs so as not to risk hurting others or making ourselves too uncomfortable. These falsehoods and omitted truths build like walls and lead us astray from true connection with one another and with God.

God is able to love only that which is true and real.
God can only find us and love us where we are
not where we wish we could be
or think we ought to be.

May the truth set us free to love.