Published in the bulletin of Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Knoxville, TN, on 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

My dear Parishioners,
Peace! There are ten (10) “In Brief” articles in the Catechism of the Catholic Church addressing the Eighth Commandment of the Decalogue, ‘You shall not bear false witness.’ The following is a reflection on CCC 2510.
When considering the Eighth Commandment, ‘You shall not bear false witness’, Mother Church reminds us of the Golden Rule: “Whatsoever you would that others should do to you, do you also to them. For this is the Law and the Prophets” “as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner” (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31). The Lord’s clarification that the Golden Rule summarizes the Law and the Prophets ties His teaching with much of the Old Testament. When linked to the Eighth Commandment, the Golden Rule asks us if we would want others to say about us what we say about them. This “ethic of reciprocity” should keep us honest.
The Golden Rule has been restated throughout the centuries. Buddhism has a version of it in the Udana-Varga (5:18). Hinduism has a version of it in the Mahabharata (5:1517). Jainism has a version of it in the Sutrakritanga (1.11). The Muslim Sunnah Imam Al-Nawawi Forty Hadiths (13) has a version of the Golden Rule. The Talmud Shabbat of the Jewish people has a version of the Golden Rule (31a). Taoism in the Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien approximates the Golden Rule as does the Dadistan-i-dinkik of Zoroastrianism (94:5). But only the Lord Jesus provides us with the grace required to put the Golden Rule into practice.
A famous question arises from all this. Imagine you are living in Nazi occupied Europe during the Second World War (1939–1945) and there was a knock on your door. When the Schutzstaffel officer asks you “Are there any Jews here?” How do you answer? What do you say? While we are made for the truth, what will the officer do with it? If we say yes, the Jewish person would more than likely be killed as well as ourselves for hiding or giving shelter. Saints Alphonsus Liguori (+1787), Raymund of Pennafort (+1275) and Saint Augustine (+430) all address what has become known as ‘mental reservation.’ To answer ‘I have not seen any’ with a mental reservation being “since you knocked” would be a sort of equivocation. Immanuel Kant (+1804) addresses the issue in his On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns (1799). Saint John Paul II (+2005) in his encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor (6 August, 1993) recalls for us the importance of the truth and how we are made for the truth (cf. VS, 1, 30, 41, 48, 50, 63, 66, 75, 84, 87, 89, 91, 95- 96). That Saint John Paul II published his letter on the Splendor of the Truth　on the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord is to remind us of the power of the truth, even more powerful than the atomic bomb of 1945.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr