Questions concerning truth and charity

[Maxirad]

Truth and charity go hand in hand, right? Is it true that truth and charity are essentially indistinguishable from one another?

 

[Bradski]

They mean different things.

 

[AKDee]

Charity has more to do with love of neighbor. They can go hand in hand, as virtues, but they are different.

 

[Confiteor_Deo]

Yes, I would say so, in circumstances in which the profession of the truth is an act of charity. For example, to not say that someone’s sinful behavior is okay to try to be “nice” but rather to speak the truth and say that it is sinful, which is charitable since it stems from a love of God & neighbor. At least, that’s what I understood from the Vortex from Church Militant TV.

 

[CatholicHockey7]

“Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space.” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 29 June 2009

While the two are separate things, they cannot ever be separated. Charity means “love in action,” and to love means to “will the good of another.” You cannot will the good of another and still hide certain truths (it’s one thing for parents to keep aspects of truth from children until they’re ready, it’s another to keep those same truths from adults).

At the same time, truth is difficult for many people. There’s a great scene in the movie The International that perfectly illustrates this:

Eleanor Whitman: We are just trying to get to the truth!
New York D.A.: I get it! But what you need to remember is that there’s what people want to hear, there’s what people want to believe, there’s everything else, THEN there’s the truth!
Eleanor Whitman: And since when it’s that OK? I can’t even believe you are saying this to me! The truth means responsibility, Arnie!
New York D.A.: Exactly! Which is why everyone dreads it!

Keeping this in mind, that truth means responsibility, we have to be charitable in the way we share truth with those who need to hear it. We can’t go around shouting, “God Hates Fags!” like Westboro Baptist does. That’s not charitable (nor is it true). A far more effective way is to show our love for our fellow man, regardless of their sinfulness (remove the log from your own eye…all have sinned, etc.), but to also politely explain why their behavior is not okay. They might still reject this truth, but they’ll see our compassion and desire to love them genuinely rather than to be adversaries. That’s much more effective in evangelizing.