In today's world, more than ever, people go hungry. There is a shortage of truthfulness in societies all over the world regardless of their physical abundance or lack of it. Appearance and illusion has taken over us; there is no longer any substance to anything, reality has become a relative term. The problem with illusion is that it exists only on the surface - anybody who bothers to dig into it will be faced with this enormous emptiness. But human beings cannot thrive in emptiness because we are meant to share the fullness of God in Christ (cf. Colossians 2:9). Therefore, the humanity today is poor: we desperately seek the truth and authenticity without even realizing it.Every human person has a conscience. It is there to approve or disprove our actions as it bears witness to the truth. Our conscience knows the truth in order to bear witness for it and this knowledge of the truth is divine in nature. Conscience cannot be altered but we can adjust our response to its directives. Thus a person committing a wrong and justifying it as following his conscience is actually exercising his free will by ignoring the guilty conscience by masking it. Though the conscience cannot be altered, it can be polluted by worldly concepts and ideas, and by ignoring guilt over an extended period of time. St. Paul affirms this, "To the clean all things are clean, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean; in fact, both their minds and their consciences are tainted" (Titus 1:15). Though polluted and defiled, deep inside, every conscience continue to bear witness to the truth through the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. Humanity is hungry for the truth because our conscience demands it.
Though rare, it is not uncommon for people to walk away from their sinful ways. By staying away from the wrongdoings and its atmosphere for an extended period of time, they might even be able to suppress the guilt associated with it. But what if you live in an atmosphere where you are forced to confront the past regressions constantly - a life where you have to defend your lies continuously? Every time you fend off pointed fingers from those who surround you, you are also seared by a guilty conscience. You are presented with two choices in such a scenario: stay with the fight or give into the truth.
Superficial appearance helps a person to stay with the fight against his moral conscience by keeping the truth away, thus creating a spiritual void. We can continue to pretend to be happy by continuing to lie and cheat and justify it as necessary evils to survive in a society that in itself has turned numb to realities. Though rare and totally out of place, on some occasions truth and integrity survives, even prevails.
Lance Armstrong let the truth prevail because he saw his son picking up his battle and crossing the thin line that separates reality from illusion. And there lies the problem with lies, deceptions and illusions: You are not just denying yourself the fullness of truth, but rather you are also taking away others right to the truth. Unknowingly, they too get dragged into superficial world you have created for yourself. Their lives will also begin to get filled with the emptiness. A lie no matter, how trivial, is destined to actively seek and find its victims. Lies and deception not only corrupts the conscience of the one who carries it out, but it becomes a part of anybody who gets in contact with it and eventually dragging them into the evil associated with it. Jesus affirms it by calling the devil a liar and the father of lies (cf. John 8:44).
There's been a lot of talk in the media about the positives and negatives of Armstrong's confession. Most of the expert analysis concluded that it has done nothing to regenerate an image that was somewhat tarnished already. Some worry about the legal ramifications following these admittance. All of them are concerned about the lost endorsements - some $70 million in lost income. So why did he admit his mistakes amid such tremendous losses? Could it be: "What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Or what can one give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26).
(Here's the first part of this article)
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