I lie at work. Is that a sin?

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Question: At work, I lie often. As long as I am taking care of my family and community, does God really care?

As Dumbledore told Harry Potter, “It is our choices that show what we truly

are, much more than our talents and abilities” (Rowling, Chamber of
Secrets, p. 333).

To strive to tell the truth means one cannot be bought.  Choosing to
lie, consistently and often, makes us untruthful, unreliable,
untrustworthy persons.  Maybe we’re not as bad as Bernie Madoff, but
somewhere along the line he started shading the truth and eventually
thousands lost millions.  Lying gets easier and easier to justify.
Soon, we no longer know what we’ve said, or who we are.  We lose
ourselves in lying and then have nothing to give others, nor do we have
anyway to receive from others, for there is no true person there to
recieve.  Falsehood destroys love.  Love depends on truth, and without
love, life is not worth living.

Bottom line: Always tell the truth.  It makes it so much easier to
remember what you’ve said.

Richard G. Malloy, S.J., Ph.D., is university chaplain at the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and author of A Faith That Frees (Orbis Books).

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