It’s not every day that such an event occurs – a Prime Minister being honest.    This was not done in a corner but in public and before his peers at a world gathering of “Money Men”.   2,600 of them descended on the snowy Switz resort of Davos making it this week the Capitalist’s capital of the world.

It was there that the Taoiseach spilled the beans!   He told it like it was!  No fudging, that came later, but the initial message was clear “We went mad borrowing…which spawned greed”.   We did not listen to Jesus’ warning in St Luke’s Gospel chapter 12 verse 15.  “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

The availability of money coupled with our innate greed would have been well understood by the Taoiseach’s audience.   After all they are the 1% so named by the “Occupy” movement as they represent the world’s financial elite of movers and shakers who would perfectly understand his description of the Irish scene.   Actually some of them were feeding our Banks with the funds to fuel the fire!

Of course it is hard to live with the truth so the pundits back home said it was not true.  They caviled at the inclusiveness of the speech.  Political spin then becomes the order of the day.

By muting the element of certainty, our post-modern age claims “the truth is different for everyone”.    You have your truth and I have my truth.   By removing meaning in this way from the word “truth” you permit license and give an illusion of freedom.

Biblical truth on the other hand is true at all times in all places for all people. Jesus said in his prayer recorded in St John’s Gospel chapter 17, “Your word (the Scriptures) is truth”.

Our natural inclination to deny truth by lying comes from the devil who is “a liar and the father of lies” (St John’s Gospel chapter 8 verse 44).   His version of salvation is that we must work for it.  The truth is that God has provided it freely in the work of Christ on the cross for all who have turned to him believing his word to be true, (Ephesians Chapter 2 verses 8 & 9).

To the money merchants at Davos St James would issue a timely reminder of their dependency on God. ‘Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.’ (Chapter 4 verses13-14).