God, sincerity and hypocrisy

IT’S about time we review this crucial relationship between God and our capacity to stick to the truth or to distort it.

Nowadays, with the plethora of data and information, we have to remind ourselves constantly that truthfulness is not a matter of simply conforming these data and pieces of information to our own designs. We need to process these raw data to leaven them with the love of God and submit them to God’s will.

To put it bluntly, we can only be in the truth when we are with God. Outside of him, let’s wish ourselves sheer luck, because the most likely thing to happen is to slip from the truth. It´s like chasing the wind. For all the excitement and advantages a Godless pursuit of truth gives, everything will just turn out to be vanity.

And so, prayer is a must. It’s what vitally, existentially unites us with God. Without it, we will just be on our own, an easy prey to our own weaknesses, let alone, the temptations around.

Very vulnerable to the temptation to distort the truth and to fall into the tricks of hypocrisy and pretension are persons endowed and favored with all sorts of talents, intelligence, position, power and who may already have attained a good level of sanctity. That’s because their situation attracts all sorts of temptations.

We have to be more aware of this phenomenon and able to handle it. Even Christ himself was tempted by the devil to deviate from his Father’s will. And the devil employed the subtlest of tricks, even quoting Scripture, to bend Christ to the devil’s will. The devil will always reserve the worst strategy to those who dare to get close to God.

Thus, those of us who try our best to follow God should not be surprised when the most “irresistible” temptations come to us not only from time to time, but even persistently. We somehow should expect this thing to happen, and be ready for it.

Cases of the most rotten clerical abuses that have emerged in recent years only lend credence to this assertion. Even among the apostles, one betrayed Christ, because in the end he was not sincere. He pursued his own game plan, not God’s will.

Let’s remember that the devil can appear to us as an angel of light. We need to be extremely discerning, a skill that is first of all a fruit of grace, then honed up by a consistent personal effort to deal with God, and to avail of all the means, like spiritual direction and confession, to put us firmly within the sphere of truth.

We should avoid giving an inch to the temptation to be insincere, because that inch in no time becomes a foot, and from there it can only grow cancerous unless drastically stopped. We really need to be savagely and brutally sincere with God, with ourselves and with others.

For this, a lot of sacrifice is needed, a lot of effort to grapple with our pride is a must. I am moved to read in the gospel about that father of the boy possessed by the deaf and dumb devil. When Christ asked him whether he had faith, he readily cried out, “I believe, Lord, but help my unbelief.” (Mk 9)

The father of the possessed boy knew he had faith, but that faith needed to grow more, for which he confessed his inability. It’s a predicament that can easily be ours, since it is common. Faith is a dynamic thing. It needs to grow. Our problem is that at a certain point we tend to say, enough.

We should always acknowledge our limitations, weakness, faults and mistakes. Recognizing them is the first step in the journey to reach the truth about ourselves and about others.

May we never be proud as to turn a blind eye to the negative elements in our life. We would lose the chance to ask for forgiveness and for grace, and to spur us to action. Sincerity requires action. It just cannot be a kind of blissful idleness in the thought we are not doing anything wrong. To be sincere always involves struggle, battle, warfare.

Let´s learn to be identify the things we need to give up in order to identify ourselves more and more with Christ, the very foundation and measure of truth and reality.

Sincerity in the end and always is a religious affair, and not just a personal, social or political concern. We need to realize this deeply.