How many kinds of lies are there?
There are three kinds: the jocose lie, the officious, and the pernicious (CX. 2).
In what are these three distinguished?
In this: the jocose lie is told for amusement's sake; the officious lie in order to help another; and the pernicious lie in order to do another harm (ibid.).
Is the last kind of lie the worst of all?
Yes; for whereas the first two kinds may be only venial sins, the third is of itself always a mortal sin, unless the injury done is only slight (CX. 4).
What is understood by pretence and hypocrisy?
Pretence consists in showing oneself externally in one's life what one is not interiorly; and hypocrisy is pretending to be holy when one is not (CXI. 1, 2).
Is one bound, so as not to commit these sins, to show forth exteriorly the bad that is in one?
In no wise; on the contrary, it is a duty to let nothing that is bad in us appear externally so as to avoid harming oneself in the opinion of others, or so as to avoid disedification and scandal. What the virtue of truthfulness demands is that we let nothing appear externally, whether good or bad, which does not correspond to our inner life (CXI. 3,4).
Is one bound by the virtue of truthfulness to abstain from word or deed which might lend itself to a false interpretation?
No; one would not be bound to do this except in the case when such false interpretation might cause some evil which it is our duty to prevent (CXI. 1).
Is it possible to commit the sins of lying, pretence, and hypocrisy in several ways so that they constitute sins that are specifically distinct?
Yes; one can sin by exceeding the truth, and this is called boasting; or by deficiency, that is in falling short of the truth, when, for instance, a person makes out that he is lacking in some good which he really has, and this sin is called the belittling of oneself unduly (CXII., CXIII.).
Next - The Catechism of the Summa - XXXVII. OF FRIENDSHIP; AND OF THE OPPOSITE SINS, NAMELY, OF DISPUTE AND FLATTERY
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