‘It is preferable for scandal to arise than for truth to be abandoned’ (St. Bernard of Clairvaux).
If we carefully read the confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees in the Gospel of John, we will see that the Lord never moved an iota from the truth, even when He knew that His words would be misinterpreted and used against Him.
The treasure of truth is more valuable than a false harmony that seeks to create unity without sufficient attention to truth as a common foundation.
When our heavenly Father tells us through His Son that He Himself is the truth (John 14:6), then every word that comes out of His mouth is true, and we as human beings are called to follow it. This truth is not always comfortable, because it wants to drive out the darkness from our souls and allow the light of God to penetrate us. When it encounters deceptions and lies that still remain in us, it wants to dissolve them.
St Augustine gives us a similar expression: “It is better to love with severity than to deceive with gentleness”.
Here it is clear that the love of truth is a great good. It obliges man to place himself at its service, even to accept setbacks for its sake. In this way the person becomes sincere and trustworthy. At the same time, it is a true service to God, because it is not a matter of ‘my own truth’, which I adapt to my own convenience in order to be able to resist it. All lies and pretence are alien to our Heavenly Father and disfigure man’s nature.
This is especially true when it comes to truth in religious matters: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths” (2 Tim 4:3-4).