Truth (About Ourselves)
- Jul 13
- 5 min read
“We want to see the evidence in the world of another’s caring or love. And because we live in such a material culture, we have sadly come to believe the evidence of love is what we can hold in our hands, accumulate, and quantify. That is so far from the truth. And it has caused great hardship and emotional anxiety, even depression. It has caused false relationships, marriages, even divorce. “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).” (Jackie Morfesis)
“He who does not know affliction does not know the truth, for only affliction can make us see. But there is a healthy affliction and an unhealthy affliction, one leading to life and the other to death. The first is tranquil and the other is agitated.” (Dr. Mary S. Ford)
“In today’s gospel reading [Matthew 9:1-8] we encounter the story of a man who is a paralytic. We are not told his name or anything about him. Only one thing we know for sure. He is paralyzed and cannot walk let alone move. When we hear this story and similar stories we are struck by the degree of suffering and the difficulties caused by such an illness. We look at this man with our all too human eyes and we think that we understand the situation, that we understand what is really wrong. Yet glory be to God that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not see the world through our merely human eyes. The Lord goes much further, much deeper in His examination of the person who is before Him. This should cause us to tremble and also to be joyful. We should tremble because God will see the truth about us. We should rejoice because in that truth lies our salvation and our real healing. In God’s truth we see who we are and what we are. We are exposed before God, as Adam and Eve were exposed in the garden. Yet this is to our benefit because what is not exposed before God is not healed.” (Fr. James Guirguis)
“We have surely all accepted lies of one kind or another about who we really are. It is so easy to define ourselves by our disordered desires, by sins we fall into time and time again, or by worldly categories that simply inflame our passions and serve only earthly kingdoms of one kind or another. It is so tempting to think that whatever wins the praise of others, gratifies some desire, or does not call us into question must somehow be right. Instead of trying to make a false god in our own image, Christ calls us to embrace the hard truth that we will become more truly ourselves by becoming more like Him. He offered up Himself to the point of death on the Cross in order to conquer the power of death, the wages of sin. The more we offer ourselves to Him by dying to the power of sin in our lives through ongoing repentance, the more we will become our true selves in His image and likeness.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“The nature of truth and lies becomes clear if they are thought of in terms of being. The Church describes God as the “Author of our being.” In the writings of the Fathers, being itself, simple existence, is seen as a good thing, the first of all created good things. God brings us into existence saying, “It is good.” More than that, the Fathers teach that it is God’s will that we grow towards “well-being,” with the ultimately goal of “eternal being.” This, in terms of existence, is the path of salvation.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“If the Sunday of the Dread Judgment seems harsh and merciless and unloving to us — if it seems perhaps to even be speaking of some other God entirely — then it might be (at least in part) because we are misunderstanding the meaning of the word “judgment.” “God the Judge” is not — as we might often unconsciously assume — simply another way of saying “God the Accuser” or “God the Punisher” or “God the Condemner.” Far from it! A judge — quite simply, and above all else — is someone who speaks the truth. Therefore, the purpose of the Dread Judgment at the end of time itself will be for us to finally learn the truth about our own hearts — a truth that only God can possibly reveal.” (Igumen Gabriel)
“We must be prepared, however, for our faltering steps of obedience to open the eyes of our souls to the truth about where we stand before Him. After letting down his nets and catching that great haul of fish, Peter gained the spiritual clarity to know his unworthiness: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” His reaction bears some similarity to St. Silouan’s teaching: “Keep your mind in hell and do not despair.” When we attempt even the smallest act of obedience, we open our darkened souls to behold the brilliant light of Christ. The darkness in our hearts will then become all the more evident to us. Instead of being discouraged that we are more aware of our spiritual weakness, we must then call all the more for the Lord’s mercy as we struggle to remain on the path to the Kingdom.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“If we decide to learn the truth about ourselves and others, if we decide to stop constructing an imagined ‘ego’ to project onto our social surroundings, then we have to realize that we must be candid and sincere. Sincerity is abhorrence of pretense. Posturing destroys the unity of the personality since it makes us appear outwardly different from what we really are. It distorts the essence of the spiritual life because it promotes love of the self, ambition and love of pleasure. The more people love themselves, the more they become dependent on the opinions of those around them. But Christ teaches us to repudiate lies, egotism and all those outward forms of good, self-justifying behavior. You’re called upon to embark on a course of self-knowledge, that is, to understand in your heart the true nature of your spiritual ailment, because those who haven’t seen their inner darkness aren’t seeking the light….We’re called upon to rip off the mask of virtue and to put on our genuine self, because ‘God monitors our heart…” (Archimandrite Theofilos Lemontzis)
“You are alive – you are going to die. We have to work it backwards – live in a manner such that your death will not undo the whole of your life. Fasting is learning how to eat in order to live. And the life that we live is the life of Christ. Therefore I eat a little less and share a little more. I eat a little less and pray a little more. I eat a little less and pay attention to my life. Why do I pray? I talk to God because He alone is life. The true life-giving conversation is the one I have with God. I learn to say thank you, from the depths of my being. I learn to use my voice to offer thanksgiving in the name of all creation. I talk to God because He alone tells me the truth about myself and the world around me. God never lies.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Only by having a proper comprehension of reality—the truth about God and about human beings—can we become that which God has called us to be.” (Fr. John Behr)
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