Are We Tired of His Lies?

Last week I helped my friend, Aaron, lead a Confirmation retreat at his parish. Throughout the day, Aaron kept telling crazy, elaborate, and obviously exaggerated stories to serve as analogies and introductions for Catechesis (a common Youth Ministry trick). At one point in the day, one of the eighth grade boys sarcastically yelled out to Aaron, "I'm tired of your lies" to which Aaron responded, "That's the best thing a Youth Minister could hear." We all laughed at the interaction, but immediately I got my journal out and wrote down that quote: "I'M TIRED OF YOUR LIES."

Article 26 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the TRUTH and happiness he never stops searching for." The statement, "I'm tired of your lies", when applied to our faith, presupposes that TRUTH is restorative. If we express tiredness, it must mean that there is some place or some thing in which we can find rest. And that rest is found in the Truth that we have a God who ceaselessly and intimately loves us and desires for our happiness to be found in relationship with him.

But Article 28 goes on to say that this "'intimate and vital bond of man to God' can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man." As we read this, I think the majority of us are shocked and appalled that some people could reject this indescribable love of the Father. But we all do. Our daily shortcomings in holiness and our constant recurrence of unfaithfulness can attest to this. But I think the most basic explanation of our rejection of the love of God is our human weakness to the lies of the Devil.

In John 8:44, Jesus describes Satan by saying that "he does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of lies." Though we know he is a liar, so often we are NOT tired of his lies. We are accustomed to his lies and embrace them with tenderness. We embrace the lie that complacency is commonplace so it is okay. We accept the lie that we aren't good enough and that we must mutilate our bodies and downplay our dignity to receive true love and affection. We buy into the lie that Christianity is supposed to be easy and that the hardship we endure must mean that God is cold and uncaring. We convince ourselves that we need material goods and comforts and worldly possessions for happiness. We dismiss our restlessness for Truth and embrace the lies of the Evil One.

Today, let our prayer be one of humble meditation on the ways in which we have rejected the Lord's gift of Truth. May we be bold enough to actually beg the Holy Spirit to make the lies we embrace transparent for us that we might strive with greater intensity to embrace the Truth found in relationship with God. But may we also recognize that in this Easter Season we can rejoice in the TRUTH we hear in 1 Timothy 1:15 in which St. Paul writes, "THIS SAYING IS TRUSTWORTHY and deserves full acceptance: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." And may this rejoicing continue as we read these words confirmed in Paul's letter to Titus in which he writes "but when the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us...through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life. THIS SAYING IS TRUSTWORTHY".

We were made for Truth. We are restless for it. And we only find it in Jesus Christ, who TRULY died for love of us, who TRULY rose again to reconcile us to the Father, and who TRULY continues to pour out his grace because he desires to spend eternity with us. For this we give thanks.