Our Venerable Father Nicetas, Bishop of Chalcedon (716-40)
Romans 2:14-29; Matthew 5:33-41
Read Matthew 5:33-41
Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’. These days many of us are struggling with who to trust. There seems to be a lot of waffling going on, especially when it comes to the recent restrictions imposed on our lives that seem to change every few weeks without a lot of clarity as to why. We begin to lose trust when we sense that we are being lied to or that we are not being presented with the full reason for why someone is telling us something. This becomes much harder when the person telling us a certain thing is someone we trust. This can lead us to become frustrated because we desire to have the truth.
Sometimes in our personal relationships, we waffle. How often have we committed to something, whether it is to meet a friend, to fulfill a particular task, or to call a family member and we fail to do it? Perhaps we feel that it is not that important, or perhaps something we want to do more, that serves us more, has come and we decide to do that thing rather than what we first committed to. We have failed to let our ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and this can lead to a loss of trust on the part of the person we have let down. Likewise, when we decide not to do something because perhaps we have too much on our plate or we have made another commitment we honestly say ‘no’, and if we give a good reason why most reasonable people will accept it. But if we then go back on our ‘no’ deciding we want to accept a previously offered invitation it can often inconvenience the other person who perhaps feels obliged to accommodate us.
Now, what about when we act on matters of principle or on moral questions? When we have taken a principled stand as Catholics on a question such as abortion or euthanasia and then when the crunch comes, perhaps when we see our career threatened or a personal relationship challenged, do we waffle and compromise ourselves? We must not. Our Lord tells us very clearly that the temptation to go back on our word, to equivocate, to deny our principles, to deny what is true is from the devil and we need to beware of this. Brothers and sisters, let us always seek to live our lives according to the truth and to conform our every action to the truth. After all, the truth is Christ and we must be faithful to Him for He is always faithful to us.