During my many years working in the NHS confidentially was, and still is, extremely important. People have a right to expect that the information held will be kept private. But even there there are times when it is right to speak out and speak up without fear. I remember times, particularly in the large psychiatric institutions of the time, where unacceptable practices remained unchallenged. People who put their fear to one side and spoke up were victimised, ostracised by their colleagues, and at worst hounded out. It still happens, maybe we haven’t made as much progress as we would like to think. The truth does set you free but for some it can also hurt.

In Sunday's gospel Jesus tells us to have no fear. At the heart of the teaching of Jesus, the "truth" that Jesus speaks, is the language of love; love of God, of your neighbour, even your enemies. Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour. How can this teaching of Jesus be so challenging, even threatening, or, to some, seem to be destructive?

Love goes and in hand with truth. Truth is one of those things that is instinctively attractive to us. It is something we like to see in society, in others, and in ourselves. And yet it’s as though we see life through a distorted mirror. It seems that there are different versions of truth, where people sometimes talk about “their truth” rather than the truth. This is not new, later in St John’s gospel, Pilate the governor asks Jesus “truth, what is that?”

For us we know what truth is. The truth is incarnate in the person of Jesus Himself. God, in the perfection of His nature made visible in the person of Jesus, is incapable of untruth. The truth that Jesus gives us in His teaching enables us to be liberated from the false image we hold of the world and of ourselves. By God’s grace we are given the ability to be truthful before God, to be truthful to others, and truthful to ourselves. Why is the hearing of this truth, God's truth, in our hearts, living this this truth in our lives, and shouting it from the housetops to others so risky?

Perhaps it is because people are comfortable living in the distorted image of ourselves and the world in which we live, living in their perception of "their truth". Changing ourselves into the likeness of Christ, the way, the truth and the life, is risky. Maybe we don’t know where to start, and maybe we are afraid of failure. But the follower of Jesus cannot remain in the same place, inviting Jesus into our hearts will surely, perhaps slowly and imperceptibly, change us. A follower of Jesus simply cannot stay as they are. We all know this, we desire, in a sense, to become Jesus, to change, to change ourselves into the image and likeness of God, which is our true self.

This is even a bigger challenge for the society in which we live. The call of truth; the call to love over hate, the call to virtue over sin, the call to selflessness over selfishness. It’s no wonder that Christians are seen as being countercultural, threatening, people to be ignored or even killed. And yet we know through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father, that ultimately there is nothing to fear. Every day we hear of examples of our brothers and sisters declaring for Jesus and paying what the world sees as the ultimate price, without the world realising that the ultimate price is not the destruction of the body but the soul.

Standing fast and speaking the truth of salvation in Jesus is not easy but countless generations have shown us the way and continue to do so. Speaking the words of Jesus and living the life of love will change us and our world. There is no need to be afraid every hair on our head has been counted, we are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.

If we acknowledge Jesus before the world at the end of our earthly lives he will acknowledge us before the Father. 

With every blessing and the assurance of my daily prayers for your needs and intentions.

Fr Chris