This story and reflection appeared in the Pastoral Newsletter sent to the priests in Korea. The following story taken from the daily paper was followed by his reflection.
A father took his son to the movies.
The man at the ticket booth asked : " how old is the boy?"
The father lying about the age of the boy was able to enter
without a ticket. The boy said to his father: "when I grow up
I am going to be as shrewd as you."
The problem here is honesty of the elder. At home and at school we teach
children not to lie. But in this case we have the father, who the son respects, without any shame, lying in front of the child. And with the lie
he enters without buying a ticket.The son learns from the father that to be honest you are going to lose out. The boy when grown up
is not going to have any qualms of conscience in lying and deceiving others.
The priest mentions that in our society there are too many lies.
On television we hear politicians lying brazenly.
Those in finance lie very naturally.
It seems that few see anything wrong with lying.
Neither do we have difficulty in lying.
To live without lying is difficult.
If we speak only the truth then things become difficult for us and others.
So even without a second thought we come out with a lie.
Even renowned leaders when something is disadvantageous come out with a lie.
Some one deceiving himself and others is a serious problem.
People for the most part do not think well of liers and avoid them.
On the other hand we like those who are honest and open.
In countries in which lying is prevalent we have lack of trust, progress and disunity.
It is not good for society. 'Do not lie' is not only part of the ten commandments but appears in many parts of Scripture: "Delight not in telling lie after lie, for it never results in good."
Sirach 7:13
The article ends with a quote from Nobel Prize winner Solzhenitsyn, " a simple person with
simple courage will always refuse to lie. "
It seems that transparency is a value that we all admire but fine very difficult to incorporate into our daily living.
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