I’ve seen a quote circulating online: “The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose and it will defend itself.” It’s been going around for a couple of years. I always see it on dramatic-looking memes, with pictures of majestic lions, and always with the citation that the quote is from the ouvre of Saint Augustine, though they never say which book or sermon. I imagine I’ve shared it myself once or twice, since the lions are pretty and it’s a nice thought.
Besides my own sharings, I usually see that adage quoted by the kind of earnest, stalwart, sheltered and insular friends who accused me of “rebelling against the church” if I dislike a certain private devotion, or if my politics are not what they’d like. As far as I can tell, they use this quote to mean that if they believe a thing is true, they don’t have to do any kind of work in presenting the truth convincingly; they don’t have to have any thought for the feelings, experiences and background of the person they’re talking to. They don’t have to do any exegesis or thinking. They merely have to make a statement or drop a Bible verse, plump it into the middle of a conversation without context, and that verse will attack the infidel just like a lion, eviscerate the poor heathen, next thing you know she’ll either come crawling to you for Baptism or descend into hell. Just comment “before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” on a pro-abortion person’s Facebook thread, and you’ve let the mighty lion of truth loose to do its work. Copy and paste a wordy, opaque passage from the Summa Theologica into an email to your friend the undergraduate English major, and you’ll have taught him all there is to know about Catholic Social Teaching. Bonus points if it’s in Latin. Quote a Q and A from the Baltimore Catechism at your Calvinist uncle and you’re golden. You can make that little hand-dusting gesture and count your day’s evangelization work as done. Anyone who doesn’t get your point is being obstinate on purpose.
And then there are the people who take it a step further. They abuse people, and then hide behind the Lion of Truth to shirk responsibility. They scream “fatass” at an overweight woman, and claim they were just worried about her health. They’re rude as they can be to an unwed mother, and if you object they inform you that they were “calling her out in love.” I have seen the nastiest, meanest bullying whitewashed by claiming that the bully was only being truthful.
I don’t doubt that some people think differently about the truth being like a lion, but that does seem to me to be the way the adage is interpreted.
Now, this might be a good time to tell you that Saint Augustine did not actually write that quote. I haven’t read all through Augustine myself, but I knew it didn’t sound like Saint Augustine. I researched it a bit, and found that it’s bogus. It’s actually a paraphrase of a quote from somebody named Charles Spurgeon.
How do you like that?
All the pushy people sharing that quote about truth, lovingly attributing it to Augustine, are unleashing a lie.
That pleases me just a little too much.
Very well. What is truth like, if it’s not like a lion you can unleash to claw your ideological enemies to bits? The Truth is a person. That person’s name is Christ.
If you’re witnessing to the Truth, you are witnessing to the Person of Christ. If you are deliberately opaque out of laziness or pride, you’re bearing false witness to Christ. If, God forbid, you hurt and torment someone in order to spur them to conversion, you’re bearing false witness to the Truth. Lack of charity in the name of Truth is a lie, because the Truth is Perfect Charity. “Calling someone out in love” in a way that tramples on the Golden Rule is a lie, because the Truth is Perfect Justice.
The Truth is indeed a Lion, the Lion of Judah who is the Lamb of God. The Truth does not break bruised reeds or quench smoldering wicks. The Truth speaks in parables, in sermons and most of all through actions, through His outpouring of compassion and charity. The Truth is Love– not selfish love that cages the beloved in shame but perfect love that sets the beloved free. Let the Truth possess you. Never do anything that the Truth wouldn’t do. Then you’ll have no need for a defense before the Just Judge.
There, I fixed the quote. You can attribute it to me, if you’d like. And here’s a real Saint Augustine quote for you:
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
(facepalming lion image courtesy of Pixabay)
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