the sin of giving untrue testimony about another---lying about someone.

Transcription

1 Level 6, Lessn Plan 13, Chapter 15: "Backed by Truth" Dinner with Father (5:30-6:30) Primary Aim: Be a persn f integrity. Materials: Bibles, evaluatins, pencils, rsaries, Prayer handut Key Wrds (Vcabulary): lie: a deliberate attempt t mislead thers. false witness: detractin: the sin f giving untrue testimny abut anther---lying abut smene. the sin f using the truth irrespnsibly r maliciusly t harm anther's reputatin. slander: the sin f saying smething false abut anther which harms the persn's gd name; als called calumny. rash judgement: the sin f judging anther's behavir as wrng withut enugh evidence. gssip: the sin f idle r malicius talk abut thers; talking abut the faults f thers r exaggerating them. Explanatin 1. Opening Prayer and Scripture (6:30-6:35 PM) Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, We humble urselves befre yu, asking yur frgiveness fr the many times we have ffended yu and thers with ur tngues. Give us discretin in all that we say. Help us t vercme all sinfulness, especially in the areas f gssip, slander, detractin, and rash judgement. Assist us in truly speaking and acting as beings made in yur image. We ask this thrugh Christ ur Lrd. Amen." Cathlic Prayer: "Our Father" (with emphasis n "And frgive us ur trespasses as we frgive thse wh trespass against us.") Scripture Reading: Matthew 12:36-37 and/r James 3: Activity (6:35-6:55 PM) a. Demnstrate hw if yu spill the feathers f a feather pillw in the utdrs with a breeze (r indrs with a fan) hw difficult it wuld be t pick each and every ne back up. The same is true f ur wrds. b. Make a "hypcrite" bag. As an example, ne side f lunch bag has "N Smking" written n it; the ther side shws smene smking. Pair the yuth up and have each pair make a bag using their wn ideas f hypcrisy and then have them shw and explain

2 their creatin t the class. 3. "The Truth" (6:55-7:05 PM) Key Message Pints Why is the truth s imprtant t us? Hw wuld sciety functin if we never knew what was true and what was nt? We wuld have t questin everything. We culd nt trust ne anther; it wuld be impssible t have relatinships. Business culd nt functin. We wuld dubt everything said. Is the sky blue r is it red? Hw d we knw that what we see as blue really is nt red---we have been mistaken all this time in what we call it! What are sme f the ways we cmmunicate? We cmmunicate thrugh speech (face-t-face, telephne, internet, fax, bdy language, sign language, etc.). Truth must be tld regardless f the manner way we cmmunicate. Truth needs t gvern all ur cmmunicatins. Ask the students t think abut whether they have ever tld a lie. If s, did they tell anther lie t cver-up their first lie? What kind f damage can be dne by a single lie? What if we lied and said smene was guilty f smething he did nt d? What if we lied and tk credit fr anther's wrk? What if we lied t prevent smene frm getting in truble? The Eighth Cmmandment, "Yu shall nt bear false witness against yur neighbr," tells us t speak the truth respnsibly. We must never intend t deceive anther. Everyne has the right t the truth. Bearing false witness is nt just abut lying but abut any kind f deceptin r abuse f the truth. 4. "Speaking Truth" (7:05-7:15 PM) Key Message Pints D we have t speak t lie? N. Lying is the deliberate misleading f anther. It is the intent t deceive. We can directly speak a falsehd, r we can imply ne. We can als give the impressin that a lie is the truth by nt speaking the truth r by misleading anther thrugh trickery. The truth must be kept in wrd and in actin; we must watch what we say and d nt say. What is hypcrisy? (The sin f pretending t be better than yu really are r pretending t believe smething yu knw is nt true in rder t impress peple.) Ask the students t give examples. Why is hypcrisy wrng? (It is a frm f lying.) Is it hypcrisy t be n ur best behavir? (N, there's nthing wrng with trying t make a gd impressin.) What abut t be prud f ur accmplishments?

3 We discussed the imprtance f wrds. Keeping ur wrd is just as imprtant. T keep ur wrd means that when we say smething, we mean it---we live up t it. "Say what yu mean and mean what yu say." Keeping ur wrd means telling the truth abut ur future actins. Ask the students t give examples. An ath is when we call upn Gd's witness t the truth. Oaths, just like vws and prmises, are serius cmmitments t the truth. We learned a few weeks ag abut false aths and hw wrng these are (in fact, this is a sin called perjury). Nt all aths are wrng. An ath shuld be swrn nly in grave matters, e.g., in curt. We must treat these wrds with the greatest respect. We must be careful when we make them. 5. "A Gd Name" (7:15-7:25 PM) Key Message Pints Why is ur gd name r reputatin ne f ur greatest treasures? It speaks t peple abut wh we are. It is ur hnr We see peple taking pride in their family name. (They may name their family business after it.) Often a family takes pride in its traits and claims them with their family name: "He has that Bradshaw intelligence." "She has the MacDnald grin!" We knw hw hrrible it is t call smene a bad name r t make fun f smene's name. This is because ur name and reputatin are imprtant. We shuld nt harm anther's reputatin. We must nt reveal the faults f thers unnecessarily. This can ccur thrugh: Slander---the sin f saying smething false abut anther; lying abut them. Detractin---the sin f telling smething withut sufficient reasn abut anther persn that is true but harmful t that persn's reputatin. Gssip. Gssip is talking abut the faults f thers r exaggerating their faults. It is wrng t gssip and talk abut a persn behind the persn' back. Often when we gssip, we tell rumrs. Telling a rumr is spreading a stry that we d nt knw t be true. It is dangerus t spread rumrs because we d nt knw if they are true r nt, and they ften harm the reputatins f thers. We must als strive t keep a gd reputatin fr urselves. We accmplish this by being hnest, virtuus, etc. When we harm anther's reputatin, we can never fully reverse the effects f ur sinful deed. We must, hwever, repair the damage we have dne as far as it is pssible.

4 If yu spread a lie abut smene, yu must tell everyne wh heard this lie that yu tld this lie. Yu shuld als aplgize t the persn abut whm yu lied. Rash judgement is the sin f judging anther's behavir as wrng withut sufficient evidence. We must be careful nt t judge anther harshly. Why? We d nt knw the whle truth abut ther peple---why they are the way they are. Jumping t cnclusins based n flimsy evidence can be dangerus. We'll likely be wrng in many instances. This, hwever, des nt mean that we cannt make judgements. If a persn cnsistently shws themselves t d bad things, then we can judge the persn's actins. We shuld be slw t judge. 6. Evaluatin (7:25-7:30 PM) Fill in the blank and True r False answer key. 1. The Eighth Cmmandment is "Yu shall nt bear false witness against yur neighbr." 2. Slander is the use f lies t hurt smene. 3. Hypcrisy is pretending t be better than we really are r pretending t believe in smething we d nt believe just t impress peple. 4. Rush judgement is t judge anther persn's character n flimsy evidence. 5. Gssip is talking abut the faults f thers r exaggerating them. 6. Lying is the deliberate misleading f anther and requires speech. True r False, we can imply falsehd withut speaking. Write ne r mre petitins t pray during ur Intercessry Prayers. Fr We pray t the Lrd. Cnclusin: prayer in the Church (7:30-8:00 pm) Expsitin Hymn: Father I adre yu Intercessry Prayers Divine Mercy Chaplet

5 Hymn: Sanctuary Benedictin Divine Praises Hymn: "Give Me Jesus"