The Evergetinos: Book Two - Chapter XLV

The Fathers do not allow us to soften this teaching. They place truth at the very center of the ascetical life and they do so without apology. A truthful mouth a holy body and a pure heart stand or fall together. Where speech is corrupted everything else soon follows. Falsehood is not a minor fault or a social lubricant. It is death. Truth is not a virtue among others. It is the new man himself breathing through the tongue.

They are relentless because they know how easily we excuse ourselves. We lie not only to protect ourselves but to protect relationships. We lie to preserve peace. We lie to avoid discomfort. We lie because we fear that truth will finally sever what little love remains. And yet the Fathers insist that where truth is sacrificed love has already been lost. What we are trying to preserve is not communion but an arrangement held together by fear.

The early sayings leave no ambiguity. The mouth is sanctified only by Christ who is the Truth. The liar does not merely misspeak. He places his mouth under another father. Falsehood reshapes the soul. It expels the fear of God because it replaces trust in God with management of outcomes. We begin to believe that relationships survive by control rather than repentance.

Abba Isaiah exposes the root. Love of human glory gives birth to falsehood. We lie because we want to be seen as kind prudent wise or peacemaking. Humility cuts this root. The humble man can speak truth because he no longer needs to be admired or effective. He entrusts consequences to God. The tongue trained in the words of God no longer needs to improvise.

And then the Evergetinos unsettles us with its hardest stories. A brother lies gently to cover another’s weakness. Another brother lies cleverly to reconcile two elders. The lies work. No one is harmed. Peace is restored. We are tempted to breathe a sigh of relief. Surely love has justified the sacrifice of truth.

But the Fathers are not congratulating us. They are showing us something tragic.

In both stories the lie is necessary because love has already failed. In the first story murmuring has entered the community. Cold has become judgment. Weakness has become resentment. The brother lies to prevent further harm because the truth would now wound rather than heal. But this is not the triumph of love. It is damage control after love has broken down.

In the second story reconciliation does not happen through repentance confession or mutual humility. It happens through misdirection. The elders are not brought face to face with their grievance. They are gently bypassed. Peace is achieved but truth is avoided. The brother’s sagacity saves them from further hardening yet the cost is revealing. Love is so fragile that it cannot bear the truth.

The Fathers do not present this as a model to imitate casually. They present it as a warning. When truth must be bent to preserve peace something has already gone wrong in the heart. The need for the lie exposes the absence of repentance. It reveals relationships sustained by pride fear and avoidance rather than by shared humility before God.

This is why the earlier sayings are so severe. Truth is the root of good deeds. Without it even love becomes distorted. What we often call love is only the desire to avoid conflict. What we call prudence is often fear of exposure. What we call peace is sometimes nothing more than mutual silence around a wound no one will touch.

The Evergetinos does not resolve the tension for us. It leaves us uneasy on purpose. It forces us to see how easily we justify falsehood once communion has been damaged. It also forces us to admit how rarely we do the harder work of repentance that would make truth bearable again.

True love does not need lies. But when love has thinned and trust has collapsed lies become tempting because they seem merciful. The Fathers tolerate this in extremis but they never bless it. They keep pointing us back to the beginning. A truthful mouth. A pure heart. A body not divided. Where these are present truth heals rather than destroys.

The hard word remains. If truth feels too dangerous to speak the work is not to refine the lie but to repent until love is restored. Anything else may buy peace for a moment but it trains the heart to live without light.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:05:26 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 341

00:08:48 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 341

00:30:55 Anthony: Then it sounds to me we can't really assent to going to war, inasmuch as we are told we have to go to war because so-and-so did something dastardly....and we are asked to take that in faith. But, people lie

00:36:35 Forrest: Replying to "Then it sounds to me..."

I think this interpretation would be too great an extension of the text. What is special about declaration of war, Anthony, that we should withhold our assent? We trust the gospel of the resurrection, which we have not seen. Our Lord praised those who believe without seeing. We can assent to trustworthy declarations.

00:40:35 Joan Chakonas: I regard the harsh realities as set forth by the Fathers the kindest warnings of consequences  because the devil is on us everyday, all of the time.  Animals are gifted instincts- our free will  is aided by the desert fathers.  Every second of our life we make  decisions.  The desert fathers are such a help.

00:41:50 Myles Davidson: I was also thinking of politics while reading this Hypothesis and the staggering levels of deception we are expected to swallow these days. If ones looks closely at many of the pretexts for war in the last few decades, they are based on falsehoods to get the masses on board with a war they would never accept if they knew the real reasons for the desire for those in power to go to war

00:42:49 Forrest: Replying to "I was also thinking ..."

Yes, I agree. The text mentioned "glory of men" begets falsehood.

00:44:01 Angela Bellamy: I don't have any confidence in evaluating anything outside of myself when even within myself is so much in the way of deception. It may be folly to take our eyes from Jesus to analyze humanity.

00:46:38 Al Antoni: Ineffable folly

00:51:58 Lee Graham: This is not our home.

00:52:15 Angela Bellamy: Reacted to "This is not our home..." with ❤️

00:53:51 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "This is not our ho..." with ❤️

00:54:16 Rebecca Thérèse: Reacted to "This is not our home..." with ❤️

00:54:37 Angela Bellamy: Daniel found himself in a strange place and he restricted his diet in order to remain pure in a foreign land. If we eat with our eyes and our ears, how do we alter our diet in order to maintain purity for the Lord?

01:05:04 Anthony: Ok, so "you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" is not about lying per se, but it is about lying for the purpose of harming another?  God is not demanding absolute truth but God demands love in speech?

01:08:40 jonathan: Is it true the church demands absolute truth? That lying, even in the case of saving someone's life, would still be considered a sin?

01:09:20 Kate Rose: Hate the sin, not the sinner

01:12:09 Joan Chakonas: Some questions you just don’t answer.  My life in corporate America.

01:14:46 Myles Davidson: Could it be said, that if telling the truth allows a greater sin (such as murder), then in that respect telling the truth becomes a sin

01:16:12 Forrest: ccc 2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth. By injuring man's relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.

01:16:43 Forrest: If they have no right to the truth, then do not answer.

01:17:27 Myles Davidson: Replying to "Could it be said, th..."

That there is a hierarchy to sin as you said

01:17:31 jonathan: Reacted to "If they have no righ..." with 💯

01:18:44 Anna: No if lying it's not going to heal the situation as only truth heals. Love is not lying. Love is truth.

01:18:56 Forrest: I never practice therapeutic lying. I don't detract against people who do.

01:19:35 Forrest: Replying to "I never practice the..."

And my father had dementia and my step father does. It is tempting.

01:22:18 jonathan: I assume, its similar to moses allowing divorce, even though its against Gods will for man, its a concession, and not necessarily the perfect way.

01:24:00 Al Antoni: St Dionysios of Zakynthos is famous for hiding his brother's murderer (and hence lying), demonstrating immense Christian love and forgiveness.

01:25:29 Joan Chakonas: Reacted to "If they have no righ…" with ❤️

01:25:44 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You always so Blessed

01:26:00 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:26:13 Jessica McHale: Thank you! Many prayers!

01:26:15 Janine: Happy feast day!

01:26:18 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father