The Sermon on the Mount (Bossuet)/Day 16
Sixteenth Day
We are not to swear: Christian simplicity. -Matt. v. 33-37.
I CONSIDER this passage one of the most touching in the whole of Christian teaching, because the Son of God here inculcates the most lovable of all virtues, which is sincerity. The Christian never lies. He says, ' That is, that is not’; and this word of his takes the place of all oaths. For instead of swearing either by heaven or by earth, or by the Holy City, or by his head — or in any manner whatever — he is ordered, for sole reply, to say, 'This is, or is not: — yea or no.' Falsehood can find no place in so simple a form of expression; it allows of no disguise, for it gives the affirmative or negative answer without subterfuge or equivocation. The sincerity of a Christian ought to be so perfect and so taken for granted that his bare word will be believed as if he had taken oaths of many kinds.
‘That which is over and above these' (i.e., above the simple ‘yes' or ‘no’) ‘is of evil.’ [1] This is a very strong expression. Whatever we may say beyond simple affirmation or negation has been brought in by hardness of heart, malice, or trickery; in short, by the devil. Let us therefore return to primitive simplicity, and make ourselves so trustworthy by our sincerity that everyone will trust to our unsupported word.
Do not be so emphatic and positive: — do not exaggerate. ‘Swear not’ means, in part, that we must have that gentleness implied in the promise ‘ blessed are the meek.’ [2] It would not be necessary to do more than simply affirm or deny if hearts were rightly disposed. Do you, for your own parts, remain in this guileless and gentle disposition; and if you must ever exceed simplicity in your speech, let it only be for the good of those who will not be moved without something stronger.
Renew yourselves; ‘ quit the old leaven.’ [3] The wicked man is a liar, because it is to his interest to hide or disguise his doings. ‘ Put on the new man’ — Jesus Christ — ‘who according to God is created in justice and holiness and truth.’ [4] Thus, putting aside all lying, which becomes only the bad who would fain be concealed, ' speak ye the truth every man with his neighbour; for we are members one of another.’ [5] The hand would not deceive the head that it was guiding through the darkness; the eye would not betray the foot, nor the foot hide its course from the eye. Could those members of our body speak and question each other, they would simply tell one another the truth in all things by yes or no. Try, O Christian people! to live thus. Do not play the mysterious and self-important personages. Be silent from reasons of prudence or moderation, and not for the sake of appearing wise and solemn. Let no dissimulation be found in you; and, above all, do nothing evil, or doubtful, or suspicious, so that you may have nothing to disguise. If you sin — for who does not? — and you have to discover your sin to a confessor, as you would a wound to your surgeon, say simply, 'It is so — it is not so,’ without seeking vain excuses for your fault or long circumlocutions to wrap it up in. Humility will make you sincere, and if you keep to sincerity will infallibly cure you.
When we swear by the Name of God, and call upon Him as witness, it is in order that our own word — weak in itself — should be made strong and inviolable by the intervention of the Sacred Name. But if we are filled with God, and clothed with Jesus Christ, the truth itself is in us; and our utterances, being strengthened by the merits of the very source whence they spring, need not to be supported by the sacredness of an oath.
There used to be people who thought that they were not swearing solemnly so long as they did not bring in the name of God: — that if they only asseverated by heaven, or earth, or the Holy City — and so forth — they were not taking a profane oath. But Jesus Christ here decides that in all this there is something which, as relating to God, should be held as more or less sacred, and should not be profaned by man’s using it to swear by.
There is yet another remarkable saying on this point. ‘Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.’ [6] Of all the things we call our own, there is not one that we can really control — not even the colour of our hair. Never say, then, ‘ I swear by my head,’ meaning 'I devote myself,’ or, as we commonly have it, 'I offer my head to such and such a penalty,’ because, far from having any power over your own head, you have none over even your hairs, to produce them, make them grow, or change their colour. Be therefore subject to God, and never speak as though you were able yourself to dispose of the smallest thing.