When is the last time you told a lie? Earlier today? Yesterday? Last week? We all do it, right-- lie, that is. Maybe it is a made-up excuse to avoid a social engagement we don't want to attend, or maybe we tell someone they've done a good job to spare their feelings when we really don't think they've done very well. White lies are ok, right? We mean well, and that's what matters. Sometimes you have to lie to spare someone else's feelings, we tell ourselves. But that doesn't seem to be what Jesusis saying today (Mt 5: 33-37). He says we need to tell the truth-- no excuses, no exceptions, no rationalizations. Can we do that? We live in a world where some folks have made careers out of being liars, and it seems to work for them. We all know folks who seem to have gotten away with all sorts of lies. Why not us? Well, for starters, it doesn't really work, at least in the long run. The truth does eventually come out. If you think that isn't so, you haven't been paying attention to the clergy abuse crisis, or plenty of other covered-up sexual abuse situations. But the reason Jesus seems to be so insistent on this point, I think, is that a habit of lying rots your soul. You stop being able to differentiate truth from your concocted fiction. You think truth doesn't matter. Finally you think there isn't any truth. We can all point out people who have gone down thta path, and it isn't pretty. So don't cut yourself any breaks on the issue of lying. There aren't "white lies." There are just lies.