Truth and Lies

 

John 8:33-47

 ⁴³ Why don’t you understand what I’m saying? Because you can’t bear to listen to my message.

 ⁴⁵ But as for me, because I tell the truth you don’t believe me. (CJB)

 

Why don’t you get what I’m saying? Why don’t you catch my meaning?

My teaching finds no room in you. My teaching makes no headway in you.

Don’t you see? It’s because I speak the truth that you don’t trust me.

 

“Lies.”  “Lying.”  “Liar.”

Lectio Divina is so amazing sometimes!

I started out by reflecting on the idea of making space for understanding; of keeping the way clear for meaning to enter. I was going to talk about how delusion renders us literally unable to discern whether something is true or not, and even predisposes us to deny reality. But then, I got sucked into a liminal space while contemplating the nature of the truth, and the grammar of lies, and I noticed something that might have far-reaching implications: The words for truth or honesty, and the words for lies or falsehood don’t work at all the same way grammatically.

We can call someone a liar, or say that they are lying, but we can’t do that if we are talking about how honest they are. I think that points to something profound.

Truth is truth, and reality is what it is, regardless of whether or not mortal creatures recognize it or acknowledge it. We can’t change it. Reality holds itself entire. On the other hand, lies have no reality of their own. We generate them, and they depend on us to propagate. They close us off; they shrink our interior spaces, they render us literally unable to accommodate the truth.

We can lie, and lying makes us into liars, but we don’t lay claim to ‘truth’ linguistically in that way. There is simply no verb form for the word “truth.” The closest we can come is in the realm of mechanics— as in “truing” a wheel:  to make a thing level, or straight, or balanced; to bring something into congruency with itself. Even then, there is a clear conception of the organic state of affairs that we are seeking to restore.

The other thing that occurred to me is that when something is “out of true” it doesn’t work right. It wobbles, or grinds, or rattles, or squeals. It’s just not happy.  

To me, it’s clear that we’re made to recognize the truth and resonate with the Real. There’s an immense space within us which was formed to hold the truth. We can close off that space, block the channel, pollute the stream, but we have to work at it. It’s always a strain, because the whole time our wheels will wobble, and our gears will grind, our beams will be warped, and we won’t be able to trust anyone.