Do we need an oath to be truthful? Is it only under threat of perjury that we would tell the truth? Of course, we hope not.
Like any sin, telling falsehoods gets easier to do the more that one does it. The first lie might bring pain of guilt and weigh on one’s conscience. But habitual liars do not seem to carry the same guilt. It is just a part of their life.
I once read an article that said that we should live as though everything that we do would be reported in a major newspaper. Today, we would say to live as though everything that we do would be shown on social media. The point is that we should not have sinful behavior in our life that we need to have remain hidden. It is one thing to want privacy. Most people do not want to live in a fishbowl. It is another thing to need privacy to hide sinful aspects of our lives.
John 3:19-20 tells us, “And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.”
Lying is our way of avoiding the light for some aspect of our actions. When we realize that we need to confess that we have lied, we really need to look deeper to find the things that the lies tried to hide. That is what we really need to work to improve. And it is likely what we really need to confess.
It is possible that we need to keep some things to ourselves. Discretion might be needed to protect another person. It is certainly true that priests cannot share what happens in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Everything from the Sign of the Cross to the Prayer of Absolution is protected under the Seal of Confession. For those who have come to me for this great sacrament of mercy, they have likely noticed my eagerness to get started with the Sign of the Cross.
While there are these legitimate reasons to keep our actions private, it might be more likely that we are trying to hide our sins. And it is this desire that leads to the lies to keep things hidden.
What aspects of our lives are we hiding? What do we not want people to know about? Do we have a legitimate reason to keep it hidden? Or are we hiding our sins?