The Following includes an excerpt from “FROM CHAOS TO CHRIST: Out of Noise, into Truth” by Fr. Christopher Metropulos. Buy the book available now HERE.
“Know thyself” is one of the greatest Greek maxims. But today, almost no thought or effort is applied to genuine, deep self-knowledge. Rather, we are self-absorbed and often seek affirmation from the world to feed our pride. The emphasis in our culture is on feeling important or presenting an appealing image of oneself.
A Sunday school teacher sensed this “appealing image of oneself” in her students while teaching the lesson on Ananias and Sapphira. She was concerned because she knew the middle-grade students were under a great deal of pressure to conform to peers, be liked by them, and project the accepted image.
She realized Ananias and Sapphira might have had similar concerns. You will remember they were the couple who sold land and gave part of the proceeds to the Church. The problem wasn’t that they offered only part, but that they made it seem as if the gift was the entire amount they had received. In essence they lied.
They had seen a fellow believer do this, laying the entire sum at the disciples’ feet, and they probably saw the respect and admiration he received. They may have been jealous of that admiration and wanted to be seen as great people too. We don’t know their exact reasoning but can assume they were trying to create an image for others to see, which might bring admiration or an honored position in the Church. But St. Peter told them they had lied not to man but to God.
The Sunday school teacher held a small figure of a boy behind a photo of a smiling, attractive young man in sports attire. The figure behind was unimpressive and plain. The teacher and her students connected this with life. They discussed how we often try to look good to others and hide the real us behind something we create.
The problem is, that people may like that false image, but they don’t know the real us! Ananias and Sapphira tried to hide behind false images. And it didn’t work! Lying should not be trivialized for any reason.
Much of our stress comes from trying to keep up appearances, projected images of ourselves. To keep the image up, we rationalize behaviors we don’t want to own, say things we don’t mean to keep people happy, and readily place blame if it looks like we are at fault.
The truth is, keeping up appearances is a tough gig! It can exhaust us and lead to shallow love from others and for others. If we never risk being our true selves, people only have the projected image of us to know and love. When the real us appears, people don’t recognize us. I’m sure you’ve heard, “This isn’t the person I married!” or “You’ve changed!”
We get so used to that projected image that sometimes we don’t really know ourselves. But God knows us! He knows our faults, flaws, and sins. He also knows the gifts He created us with and has placed His image within us! Remember, His image cannot be destroyed, even when buried under false constructions.
