Telling the truth with charity.
I heard my father say a saying… “The Truth Doesn’t Offend” and it was something that stuck with me. However, as my life progressed, I discovered that although this saying was true, it needed to be completed: to live and always tell the truth, but accompanied by charity.
Now let’s see what the words truth and charity mean. Truth: It is the conformity of things with the concept that the mind forms of them.
Charity: It is the attitude of solidarity that one has with the suffering of others.
Too often we Christians have debased charity, as if it could be confined to a soulless and cold alms-giving; or we have reduced it to more or less stereotyped “good works”.
From our simplest conversations to the deepest and most difficult ones we have to address, in any area of our life, we must proceed in a clear, direct and firm way, but with charity.
Now, it is difficult, which is why many of you may tell me: It is one thing to say it and another to do it.
But because it is difficult, we should not avoid it, but, on the contrary, we should continually practice it. Let’s remember that like any art, practice makes perfection.
To help, I share with you some obstacles that I think we have all faced on a daily basis to always live in the truth…
• False humility: Not recognizing the talents and virtues that I have, because if I do, I must put them at the service of others.
• Boasting: I declare having virtues and merits that I do not have, because I want to look good to others.
• Hypocrisy: Saying one thing and doing another, as the saying goes, “acting double standards”
• Adulation: It is giving another an exaggerated and interested “compliment.”
Let us cement our relationships, make them lasting over time, being close to the people who matter to us and who care about us (caring about each other in a genuine and generous way, applying fraternal correction if necessary) only then can we always live in the truth with charity.
“Defend the truth with charity and firmness when the things of God are at stake. Practice holy shamelessness in denouncing errors, even though at times they are no more than insinuations; at other times they will be odious utterances of the most blatant ignorance, and, normally, a sign of man’s frustration at not being able to endure the fruitfulness of the word of God." The Forge 977
A Brazilian poet said: “Life is the art of encounter, although there is so much disagreement about life.”
What do you say? Do you dare? Let’s go against the current, on topics that are not trends or fashion. I assure you that we will leave a better world.
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