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2021 Lenten Series: Week 3

Added Apr 16, 2021 •

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good evening welcome back to her third series of the Lenten series hour or so glad to bring back again dr. Ken Craycraft I left the last two weeks he talked about the first three Commandments in loving God with all of our heart mind soul and strength and now we're going to move on to the 4th and the 8th commandment and his title rather intriguing today I'm looking forward to seeing how he ties his in Morality as storytelling dr.ken good evening it's good to be back with you again doesn't he have come back to braid it thank you those of you who are here for the first time thank you and of course those of you who are either streaming live or watching it in on later thank you all for for indulging me and something that I love to do I hope it's useful for you as well as Donna said we finished last week the first of the two tables the decalogue if you'll recall if you were here the first week I introduced the series by talking about the two greatest Commandments the question that was put to Jesus what are the what is the greatest commandment he said that the greatest when is to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind and the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself and as I said that that that lays out for us perfectly the two tables of the decalogue the first three corresponding to the greatest and II 7 II table corresponding to the one that is like it to love your neighbor as yourself so the first two weeks we talked about loving God and the importance of understanding the first three and that's because if our lives are not ordered toward love for God they cannot be ordered Ford love for one another the way that I explain it to my students at the Seminary is I know very little about a navigation intact intact I'll tell real exhaust what I know about navigation in one sentence there's a thing called a Sextant and you pointed at something and it tells you what direction to go from what I understand the way that that works is that you blind up a star read that you're sure of and then you're able an able Seaman or a sailor is able to get his direction from that if that's wrong if he has the wrong star or if he sets the ship according to a star that isn't the one that he thinks it there's no possible way that he's going to reach his destination and he could be off just a tiny bit and yet a tiny bit over a course of say A Thousand Mile Cruise it's going to make this ship I miss its Target by perhaps several hundred miles if if we aren't is our Sextant if our moral sextants are not a focused on God as our Horizon as our guiding star then it's impossible for us to love one another is our love for one another is motivated by rooted in and a participation in our love for God so tonight having said that we moved to the second table of the Ten Commandments is Donna said I'm a take I'm out of order not that I would presume to to change their order but the way that I look at them in the way that I'd like to explain them is to pair them a little differently than the order they come I am in scripture so tonight we're looking at the four commandment I am the 8th when we begin to look at the fourth Commandment for the first time we see explicitly the way that Ten Commandments are specific to a specific people that might sound jarring at first after all aren't the Ten Commandments Universal in-scope don't they have Universal application for all p and of course we believe that but we also have to understand that the Ten Commandments were given to a specific people at a specific time for the purpose of making that people into a people the purpose of the tin can that was to tell Israel who they are who they are in relationship to God and therefore who God is so we begin already at the outset when we first look at the fourth Commandment we're already thinking in terms of a story forms a people of course the fourth Commandment says honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you that you may have a long life and prosperity in the land which the Lord your God giving you this is a difficult concept to accept and understand I understand that but it's crucial for a proper reading of the fourth Commandment to understand the specificity of the fourth Commandment and therefore the way that it it is qualified to some degree that we might not have understood before or consider before to be sure as with the first second and third Commandments there is an obvious reading fourth Commandment a simple obvious and true reading and I don't mean to gainsay that and that simply is a call for the order the orderliness of an obedient fan the orderliness of children obeying their parents and the orderliness of parents being people who who command the respect of their children and it's a reciprocal relationship and I'll talk about that little bit later as a matter of fact the 4th 2 I'm at to honor your father and your mother lays a stronger moral owner has a stronger moral burden on the parents than it does on the children because as I will try to lay out to you it's the parents have to have the moral gravity rooted in them and moral truth in order to command The Obedience of the children so honor your father and your mother is actually more of a burden and more of a command that has more to do with a more responsibilities of parents that it does have children and I will see you in a couple of minutes the fourth Commandment must be seen as qualified or else it becomes unintelligible and other word it's not intelligible the fourth Commandment is not intelligible we can't understand what it truly means outside of the story and which it is embedded that is the story of God's call of drill out of slavery into Egypt and his formation of Israel as a people through whom salvation Comes The Ten Commandments were given to a specific people to mold them into the kind of community God desired them to be in doing so he laid down precepts to be sure and those presets are Universal and their scope even though they are particular and they're delivering we Christians rightly understand that the decalogue contains Universal and binding moral precepts they contain moral truth but the better way to formulate this is not say that they contain universal truth accurate as that is but rather the better way to formulate it is to say that the Ten Commandments show us how to see the world truthfully they show us how to see the world truthfully they are embedded in a particular Story the purpose of which is to create a people who particularly see the world in a tree 4 way that people in turn is called to witness to the truthfulness of the story or in other words spoiler alert not the bear false witness to the story that God has told when we think of the stories that make us who we are it's often better not to think this is a true story but rather to set to think this is us for a that enables us to see the world as it is to see the world truthfully and to be perfectly honest this is a handy way of thinking about it not just in reading the Ten Commandments but I'm reading many parts of scripture first and that many parts of scripture are communicated communicated to us for scriptures communicated to us in sometimes in myths sometimes and fables sometimes in songs and songs and story poems but we don't dismiss the truthfulness of scripture if it chooses to tell us something that's true in the form of a myth or fable or a song or a song because we aren't judging truthfulness of the story we're judging whether or not the story helps us to see the world truthfully there's a big difference between those two things and if we understand that we can better understand how God can speak to us in scripture through a variety of kinds of literature a variety of kinds of deliveries genres you might call them including as I said faith and fables and myths and stories and songs and songs and poems at precisely the truthfulness of that story or rather the truth revealing nature of the story that qualify the fourth Commandment in a very important way I understand this will start once again outside of the decalogue self in the gospels of Matthew and Luke and both of these are quotations while the first is not a quote there's a quotation within a quotation in the second as a as a quotation from Jesus the Matthew chapter 4 verse 21 says Jesus walked along from there and saw two other brothers James the son of Zebedee and his brother John they were in a boat with their father Zebedee mending their Nets he called them Jesus called them and immediately James and John left their boat and their father and followed him now at first glance this seems to be completely irreconcilable to the fourth Commandment because James and John are not honoring their father not only are they leaving him in the boat they're leaving him there to fix the next the broken nets how do we understand this text other than as qualifying the fourth Commandment in some way that I'll try to explain in a couple of minutes the second passage is from the temp chapter of Matthew verses 34 through 37 these are passages that you're very familiar with because they occur in the lectionary series do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth I have come to bring not peace but the sword well I have come to set a man against his father a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and one's enemies will be those of his house whoever loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me and then finally Passage Luke if anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother wife and children brothers and sisters and even his own life he cannot be my disciple now again if we read these passages in light of the fourth Commandment it seems to me we have two choices either there's an irreconcilable contradiction between the two or the words of Jesus and the scenes from The Gospel give us Clues to how we have to properly understand the fourth Commandment and that proper understanding obviously must be something deeper than merely children obeying their parents when they tell them to do something it has to be more than that because Jesus himself says that if you love your parents more than me you have no Part of Me Jesus himself calls his disciples to abandon their father to abandon their father in the boat and I think the gospel the the authors of the gospels in this scene occurs in all three of what we called the synoptic gospels the author of the gospels hat had to have had in his mind how jarring and abrupt it was for Jesus to call his disciples and time to abandon their family so what does that mean and how is that reconcilable with the fourth commandment to honor your parents how can we understand these passages in the context of a command it says honor your father and your mother by recognizing the fourth Commandment is particular to the particular story of Israel we can begin to reconcile the command to honor your parents with Jesus call to his disciples to a ban and their parents with Jesus saying that I didn't come to bring peace but a sword to set mother against father mother against daughter and father against son and and and daughter against mother-in-law well I guess it didn't take Jesus just that daughter against mother-in-law daughter-in-law against mother-in-law but but you get the point so let's then go go to the fourth Commandment and consider what it means in that context and and and and how at least we can reconcile these difficult if not singing the irreconcilable passages as I said already there's a sense in which the fourth Commandment already has to be understood as conditioned and when we say the fourth Commandment has to be understood as condition we're not saying that it again doesn't tell us something that universally true but rather we have to understand that conditioned upon the particularity of the story of Israel so here's here's the way to begin to understand in a more in-depth way the meaning of the fourth Commandment and in fact what I'll do is paraphrase it to some degree rather than simply honor your father and your mother the fourth command that means honor the story that your mother and father have told you to the Jewish mind to the nation of Israel that's what it has to mean because it's the story that creates the community is the story that sustains the community is story that communicates to the community who it is supposed to be in reference to God and it's not just a telling of a story it's an entering into a story so we tell the story not merely by communicating the truthfulness of the story of Israel and of Jesus in the church but by entering into the story which makes us who we are and therefore when we think about the story of The Ten Commandments which creates a people we can begin to see that while the purpose of the fourth Commandment is to reveal to us the universal truthfulness of God the fourth Commandment is conditioned upon the Family itself being properly ordered toward God so the fourth Commandment is conditional that is to say we honor the family that honors the truth this is why I said at the outset then in some ways the onus of the fourth Commandment is more pain the parrot then it is upon the children because it Rose upon the parents be powerful responsibility and they heavy burden of sustaining the truthfulness of the story to their children telling the story to their children inviting their order to enter into the story so that they can become a part of it and then in turn sustain the story but not just any story it's not obey your parents just any parents it's not you any story if not just any family it's a family that communicates the truthfulness or another words the family that tells the story that helps us to see the world in a truthful way so the command assumes that the community receiving it is already a obedient and faithful to God's call now having said that we can analogize obedience to God's call with obedience the father and mother the most basic immediate and universally understood form of understanding the fourth Commandment but it extends Beyond parents to the story that the parents tell that sustained and the moral life of the community in other words to say it another way it must be understood at least in large measure if not almost entirely as honoring the tradition honoring the story honoring the narrative that makes you a people of God now of course having said that it still has much to say I guess we on packet it still has much to say route to family about family life about the society that is formed by the family and the family's role in the broader society and we don't want to ignore that in in emphasize thing that it has to be conditioned by telling a truthful story in order for the Commandment to have the teeth that it does that's because the family is as the catechism puts in a John Paul II has put in many people have put it I have two students the Seminary right now writing dissertation on the idea of the family as the domestic church this family is the first church the family is the first place that children learn the story that sustains us family is the first place that the that the that the children either learned the truthfulness of the story and stay their parents at the truthful witnesses to the story or they see false witnesses to the story the family is the place where the children either here and see something that's consistent or they hear something that inconsistent with what they see again that's why the burden of the Commandment is more on the parents than it is on the children the give the family extends their for Beyond The Family itself to the broader Society to broader social life because the family has a domestic church has to be the consistent witness to the truth rest of the story outside of itself to the world around it on the first night of this series I talked about the so-called what I call the four pillars of Catholic Social Doctrine the family pertains at least very strongly to two of those pillars now remember the four pillars our dignity solidarity subsidiarity and common good the family speaks to at least two of those that is subsidiarity in solidarity solidarity of course means that the family is a cohesive unit of people who love one another because of the ties of family that they have you know it's often said that that is especially an extended family is a group of people that if they weren't family might not have anything to do with one another but there's something about the strength of the family that brings them together and that's especially true course of the immediate family I don't know if it's come up before but I have my wife 9News here tonight have nine children and there isn't any greater society that I've seen any greater example of solidarity that I've seen then my nine children and their love and devotion I want another it's remarkable in fact and it's our little Community it's our little community of Storytelling that that that I believe has made our children love one another in the way that they do and I'm very proud of that is it are those things that I have to say and I don't say this with any kind of false modesty is because of the witness of my wife not because of my witness it's despite me it's because of her but none the less it seems to work reasonably well and I will say this just says while I'm on the subject five of them are five of my children are in the are working are in the work near there but they're either out of college or finished with that and entering the workforce four of them buy better in the workforce are directly working with or for the church and and I'm very proud of you as well including I brought this to pick it up later including the the daughter who took this and basically all of the photographs on the cover of the Catholic Telegraph my daughter Margaret who is the video director for the Archdiocese and the photographer for the Catholic Telegraph I especially commend this issue of the Catholic Telegraph to you because it's devoted to for the most part of St Joseph St Joseph and fathers in general but Saint Joseph has the model father so it has a photos by Margaret my daughter and of course it has an essay by me which is accompanied by another photo by Margaret my daughter but I have a. Another daughter who's the director of Youth Of Youth Ministries at Christ the King Parish in South Bend Indiana assign who it works and grounds and maintenance at st. Vincent Ferrer and Kenwood and I have a son who teaches at a Catholic Middle School in Dallas Texas that's four of the five V 10 works for Discovery Channel sees the black seed but maybe she'll come around Nana goes to work at Discovery Channel but she works in marketing of all things now she's at she's a wonderful young woman and and is faithful to the store as as the others so when we think about the family in the social structure of the family and the way that the family has to be understood in the broader Civic Society there's some things that we need to understand about the the the family as the solid as an intern to solidarity but also as I said a few minutes ago in terms of subsidiarity so City already again is that aspect of Catholic Social Doctrine which says all Social Challenges or social needs that can be mad at a small and local level must be met at that small and local level it was most it was best articulated ammo fully articulated in the encyclical quantities in the line of a Pius the 12th and 9th and Pius XI are out there in 1931 and Pius XI said that it that he put it in this most the strongest language that he could that the principle of steps charity must be obeyed that is to say that social problems must be mad at the most local and and and smallest level possible the family is the first unit of the symbol of subsidiarity the family is the first place that children learn that problems are met that that that education takes place I bet that the moral story is communicated what is the state that is not to say that there aren't aspects of social life that that have to be met outside the family but the family is that first unit there for the purpose of politics the purpose of laws and policies as they relate to the family is not too take the place of what the family should do but rather Implement laws policies and regulations that permit the fam to carry out its role as the first social unit under the principle of subsidiarity and other words the family's role is usurped by the government when the government for rooms to take over roles that should be addressed by the family to say that the family can't delegate some of his responsibilities for Education not everyone can homeschool their children for example and it's perfectly legitimate delegate the responsibility of educating children to someone else but the parents have the responsibility for making sure that that education is consistent with what the story and the bed and that the story can't in should be communicated to those children without within the context of Education more specifically when we think about the duties of the parents first of all is over already said it it begins with education both education the sense of those things that are important to make their way in the world but more importantly the habits the Customs the practices and the the immoral exercises that are consistent with our call to be obedient to God which makes the fourth Commandment to our family there's a way in which as we already saw that if we as parents don't fulfill our obligations under the fourth Commandment then not only should our children not follow the fourth command they have a mandate not too if we are fulfilling our role as parents in being the model and telling the true story then the fourth Commandment obliges our children not to obey us but babe the story where they find it truthfully told and that's a powerful message but that can't be anything other than what Jesus is saying when he says I didn't come to bring peace but a sword to the extent that the family what's the true story truthfully the fourth Commandment obtains if we don't tell the story truthfully then not only do we lead our children astray but we bring Upon Our Heads an hour Souls of the the corruption of our children so education education leads specifically to evangelization everything that we do as Christian must have as its goal to be a witness to the gospel we don't designate some people evangelist and some people something else everybody has various social roles but everybody regardless of their social roles have the role of being an evangelist Jesus's command to his disciples to all of his disciples was to go out and make other disciples I seen them in my name that is our responsibility and it begins in the family it doesn't begin it doesn't even begin here in the church it begins in the family and in the household all of this is to say to summarize the fourth Commandment the Stanley is almost absolute the family is Almost Say but it's only sacred to the extent that it points to what is ultimately sacred the family is only properly ordered when it's ordered tour God and therefore the fourth Commandment is only intelligible when the story is told truthfully and therefore the burden turn on the parents more than its on the children now it won't be terribly surprising I hope at this point to see why I pair the eighth commandment with the fourth Commandment the fourth Commandment is about telling a truthful Story the 8th commandment says you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor once again we have to understand that the passage has a meaning that is deeper than the meaning that often is attributed to it often times we think that the eighth commandment is a commandment not to lie and to be sure that's a part of it but the commitment has much more to say to us then simply that we shall not lie to illustrate that I want to point out and in and actually read a couple of passages from one of my favorite place and I'm reading from the play not the screen play men of you might be familiar with the screenplay the the film the movie starring Paul Scofield and Orson Welles about the life of Saint Thomas More I called a man for all seasons the screenplay is very close to the actual play but I'm reading from the play Itself by Robert Bolt and I want to read two passages from or at least highlight and reports of two passages from the play in the first Margaret Moore's daughter and margus hunt send more son-in-law Thomas Roper encounter more with the news that Parliament is about to pass this is succession Act of night of 1534 which requires both recognizing and Belen the king's mistress as his lawful wife and any children that they would have as legitimate heirs to the throne of England when Roper vaguely tells more that the oath is about the marriage more asked this but what is the wording what is the wording Roper contemptuously dismisses the question by saying we don't know we don't need to know the wording we know what it will Morris claims and reply it will mean what the words say and oath is made of words it may be possible to take it or to avoid it the second scene occurs after more is arrested because of course he didn't take the out he didn't you would not take the oath of succession he didn't deny it but he wouldn't take and in his silence was supposed to be his defense but if you know the history of Thomas St Thomas More that's not exactly how it turned out so the second seeing occurs after Moore's arrest for his refusal to take the oath of success when Margaret again his daughter visits him in the Tower of London and urges more to quote say the words of the oath and in your heart think otherwise this is Margaret exhorting her father trying to save his life say the words of the oath but in your heart think otherwise but more cannot do that because as he asked rhetorically quote what is an oath then words we say to God and then it continues when a man takes an oath he's holding his own self in his hands like water and if he opens his fingers then he needn't hope to find himself again some men aren't capable of this but I do love to think your father is one I tell I highlight this story to indicate that the eighth commandment following on the fourth Commandment tells us that communities are built by words as a matter of fact it's not accidental that the word communication and the word Community are essentially the same word communities are built upon communication therefore they are necessarily built upon truth-telling or being authentic truthful witnesses to the truth about God that is to say the commandment is an intrinsically social command it's not downtown. Why do it had hit implies back its don't bear false witness against your neighbor is that because the essence of human community is truthful communication and no human Community can be sustained outside truthful communication it necessarily requires it I want to put another Saint Thomas st. Thomas Aquinas who said and they assumed that his famous Summa theologiae men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another does truthfulness is an expression of Justice morality is truth-telling even when that truth-telling is through a story and in fact it's through the snow Laurie that we most understand the impact of truth-telling by virtue of being created in the image of God and called by God as a community of faith we are created by words I like to tell my students words are all we have theology is a word about God words are all we have and when set when they hand in a term paper or an exam and they get it back and it's covered with red ink quiz about to read pixels now but when it's covered with red and most of the comments that I give back to them or thing like you need to make finer distinctions that's not what this word means this word means something else why is that because words are all we have words build community and therefore we have a mandate to be faithful witnesses to those words think about even the very Foundation of our salvation in the prologue to the Gospel of John the gospel evangelist says in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God what God was the word was so we see immediately the powerful importance upwards and communication and therefore truthfulness bearing witness to the truth about God and about the world that is contained in the very essence of the eighth commandment not to bear false witness cuz it isn't just about lying to someone it's a command not to be unfaithful witnesses to the true story that sustains us the story of creation fall Israel Jesus church that story is the story that we are called to be witnesses to we violate the 8th commandment not simply when we lie to someone but when we are false witnesses to the story that is to say when we are either teach things that are contrary to the gospel say things that are contrary to the gospel or do things that are contrary to the gospel that's what it means to give a false witness or giving a false witness the thing that were called to do and that is to evangelize now there's obviously a positive corollary to the command not to give false not to bear false witness and that's to be a witness to the truth Jesus said let your yes be yes and your no be no what did he mean by that it seems to me he meant something like this be the kind of person for whom it's official just say yes and the person to whom you're speaking nose without a shadow of a doubt that the answer is yes or be the kind of person that if you say the answer is no, that person can have absolute confidence the answer is no if that person doesn't have that continents and he doesn't have it because of something that I've done or said I had violated the eighth commandment because I have borne false witness not about my paper in this particular case but about the truth that I am called to witness to by engaging in communicating and being a a participant in this true story what are some offenses against the truth well I won't go through an exhaustive list but we can think of a few that some that are obvious and some might not be as obvious or not not come to mind perjury is a with perjury is a violation obviously of the of the command not to give false witness perjury is a specifically kind of lie and it cuts to the heart of the ability to have a just Society so we think about the eighth commandment we have to think about solidarity and we have to think about common good the eighth commandment is solidarity because again at 2 post from the quote from St Thomas Aquinas if we can't even live in community with one another if we aren't telling the truth if we are being truthful and therefore perjury what kind of false witness is Gravely evil and Gravely immoral perjury of course is what happens after you've taken an oath by definition that's what perjury is so a can you pay can a toad an oath which Thomas More said is made of words and you say something that is contrary to the truth you've taken an oath to be a truth-teller you've said something that is false and in the contest and it's almost always in the context of either some kind of Jeopardy that another person is in whether it be a criminal case or civil case or even if it's even if it's signing a document that's no I did then what you swear that what you're saying is true to the best of your knowledge perjury encompasses all of those things if we make a note but say something that we know is false other types of violations of the 8 commandment include things that are not necessarily false but still shed a false light or bad light on another person slander or other kinds of language that prejudice is another person in the eyes of others I even sometimes if it's true you know what sometimes people will say things about someone else that is true but irrelevant for the purpose of harming or injuring that person or slandering that person another violation of the eighth commandment is flattery you know as a as a professor you always have your flattery radar very very finely honed especially around exam time flattery often times we don't think about the negative implications of flattering say that dress flatters you or something like that but Slattery what is a violation of the eighth commandment because it's telling something that might even be true but the purpose of it is not to convey what's true what's truly sad but some other ulterior we flatter to get something if we flatter to get something if we complement to get something that's a violation of the 8th commandment because we're not using those words in the way that they received end of the words understands them were using them for a false purpose therefore we're bearing false witness the flattery dishonest praise for an ulterior motive is form of bearing false witness sarcasm is another one sarcasm in his is an interesting word and sarcasm should not be confused with irony irony can have a perfectly legitimate place in Converse Jason is perfectly legitimate rhetorical device sarcasm is a completely different thing the word sarcasm comes from two Greek words which literally mean to divide the flex the ren The Flash to tear the flesh in other words sarcasm by definition intends to wound its using words not to convey truthfulness but to hurt the other or to put it more in the context of what we've been saying tonight sarcasm not about building a community but tearing one apart and therefore it's using words and ways that words are not intended to be used and therefore a violation of the 8th commandment if we think about it in this way we can summarize the eighth commandment by saying that that false witness is a form of silence false witness is a form of violence why because it violates the sanctity of communication which is necessary to build a community it is a and it is a participation and telling a false story which leads to a false morality which leads to the destruction possibly not just of the person to whom we are bearing false witness but to our own destruction as well not to be sure we have to understand that the Mandate not to bear false witness is not a mandate always to speak falcon X it's the case that even if what we might say is truthful it does more harm to say it than to keep quiet and keeping quiet is the better option we call it discretion I like I'd like to tell my children you know sometimes it's better to be quiet and let people think you're stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt sometimes you have to Humble children understand silence discretion Prudential judgment are not necessarily violations of the 8th commandment and the fact and be consistent with it we don't have to say everything no imprudent discretion is often more important for building up a community and for telling a true story then saying something that's true that just doesn't need to be sad all of this is to say that both the fourth Commandment and the 8th commandment speak to the same mandate the mandate to tell a true story the true story of creed open ball and our Salvation through is real in the alive death and resurrection of Christ as communicated through the church morality is storytelling not that we emphasize whether or not the story is true but whether or not the story makes us see the world in a truthful way and that mandates us to speak the truth the bear new witness not for the purpose merely of not deceiving but for the purpose of building up the kingdom of God our mandate to evangelize speaks to both the fourth Commandment and the eighth commandment to be a kind of community as a family to which children are called to be obedient and to be the kind of people for whom are yes is yes and are no just now thank you the questions and I have to believe we've been those who are listening on the podcast or live or or otherwise hadn't have complained that they can't hear the question so I'll repeat the question as best I understand it but so please please if anyone has any questions yes yeah so the question rules really more of an observation but it's a very good one in the Book of Revelation where John describes those who will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven liar our first even ahead of adulterers and murderers and actually I'd like to I know it wasn't in the form of a question that I actually have a little bit of a kind of a teaching tool that I use with my students to illustrate that point and that's this if you look at the 4th the fourth chapter of Genesis is the story of Cain and Abel and we'll know the broad outline of the story gone is happy with Abel's offering not completely clear why isn't not he's unhappy with Cain's offering and pain is in a fit of resentment and jealousy decides that he's going to kill Abel but here's what's interesting about the story of Cain and Abel it's a very spare Story the whole story is told in like 4 or 5 versus but here's good what happens Kane we do know Kane says this he says to April let's go to the field and that's all he says and then of course he kills them in the field but I'm thinking about that text and thinking about necessity in the importance of truth-telling it's not I think it's a fruitful exercise the sort of let ourselves imagine what came might have said to Abel in order to get Abel into the field to kill him because I'm pretty sure we can we can we can be fairly confident that Kane didn't say to Abel come to the field so I can kill you because it's not very likely that they would have gone in that I wouldn't have gone rather is probable again using our imagination to fill in gaps the cane said something table about going to the field that was not true and so I asked my students which is worse canes deception to get cable into the field or Cain killing Abel an argument could be made that in the broader context of the importance of truth-telling and sustaining the truthfulness of the story that the greater sense was Cain's deception then was just killing now of course this is a an exercise in moral imagination and it will talk about obviously killing I think next week but when we talked about killing a qualified I become life is that do we know what's going on with the sound okay it is something I'm doing maybe it is I don't know I moved back from the microphone too little and it stopped well whatever it was. so that's a very nice thought salvation and end and obviously consistent with that my remarks tonight thank you the question here so the question the question began with the River were not a very common English word but one that pertains to the discussion of calumny and and it basically means to to to to to insult someone usually assault someone invite in a false way saying something that's not true about that person and therefore casting aspersion on that person or a casting that person in a way that puts them in a bag in a bad light and the question then was what is what what is Our obligation Duty or otherwise to correct that person and what if the person won't be corrected it's a really good question and I really one of the reasons that I really like the question and actually speak to a part in my talk tonight that I kind of but I know I left out for the time and that is martyrdom we have to understand that none of us in our lifetimes will probably be called a Tamara demand to sit in that way that we understand the martyrs of the church but Mark the word martyr means witness that's what it means it just means it's literally the Greek word for witness and we are called to be Witnesses and therefore Martyrs and sometimes it might be the case that better to suffer even in Injustice than to cause a greater Injustice you know I remember one time when I was teaching undergrads with many many years ago and I was talking about the need to turn the other cheek and and Anne and what the implications stuff that are and the person said to said the student said that's the worst just so we're just supposed to be doormats am I answer that was well you know sometimes we're just supposed to be doormats and and I and II my answer to your question Marine has to be has to be in the broader context of our duty to evangelize and we have to make prudent judgments about how correcting someone does or doesn't I'll contribute to that to that mandate and that's it that's a difficult decision to make in particular context as many situations are when were called to correct someone who is in are especially if they're calling someone to correct someone who has an air about us but sometimes you know sometimes you just got to let it go and the words that my granddaughter things all the time let it go you got to let it go sometime it's never it but it's not but I do I mean to dismiss it as an individual is because it's very difficult it can be a very difficult question and this is why you know this is not this lecture series but in a different one I would emphasize a how important the virtue of prudence is Prudence which is the form of all the virtues and therefore Prudence has the virtue that tells of how the other virtues need to apply a particular situation and that's that something is very difficult but it has to be but it has to be within the context of not understanding the sometimes sometimes we for the sake of the Kingdom that we we suffer the slings and arrows at martyrdom I think so yeah I think so yeah it does but I thought I think that has to be the answer and let me be a little bit out of autobiographical I had my I had an odd very odd up and in fact it is so odd that that if you knew the details of it you would be shocked that I'm standing here where I am today and but it caused me to have to do a lot of giving for people who don't even acknowledge that they did things that hurt me and never will that is never will acknowledge that they heard any other any other alright that'll do it I'll see you next week an adductor can on your first night when you put this into context you told us you were a narrative theologist you follow a narrative theology where are stories that we claim form all of our lives are moral lives are political lives are a pandemic lives are socialized all our decision I'm beginning to see that now. You see that as a family in your teaching your children thank you for sharing all that with us I think you also all for coming next week will be going over the fifth commandment the seventh commandment and the tenth commandment talking about all Justice is social justice so thank you all for coming have a safe trip home and have a wonderful week thank you

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