“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.” — Exodus 20:16
One of the quiet challenges of our time is learning how to discern truth.
The Ninth Commandment reminds us not only to avoid speaking falsehood but also to represent reality faithfully. In a world where information, entertainment, and social media constantly shape our understanding of the past, discernment has become an essential Christian virtue.
Recently, I found myself thinking about Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey. When I first heard about the film, I was genuinely interested. As a teenager, I had read Homer’s epic in an English literary translation and was captivated by its poetic beauty and timeless story. I also remember watching an older film adaptation many years ago that, at least in my memory, remained much closer to the original work.
As I learned more about the new adaptation, however, I realized it was being presented through a contemporary interpretive lens. Every generation brings its own questions to the classics, and new adaptations are part of that ongoing conversation. Yet I found myself longing instead for the world Homer originally imagined.
In the end, I quietly decided not to go.
It was not a decision born out of anger or protest. Rather, I realized I was content to leave The Odyssey where I had first encountered it—in the imagination of my youth. I remember it now as the epic story of a man trying to find his way home, stumbling into one trial after another, learning through hardship, persevering despite his mistakes, and continuing the journey.
That memory has stayed with me for decades.
As I reflected on that decision, I realized it expressed something that has quietly shaped much of my reading over the years:
Before asking what the past says about us, we must first allow the past to speak for itself.
Whether I am reading Scripture, history, literature, philosophy, or the writings of the saints, I have come to appreciate the importance of first understanding a work within the world that gave it birth before asking what it might mean for our own time.
Classics deserve to be encountered first as classics.
Homer should be allowed to be Homer. Shakespeare should be allowed to be Shakespeare. The Brothers Grimm should remain the Brothers Grimm. Even the philosophers I read as a young adult, such as Sartre, deserve first to be understood within the intellectual world from which they emerged before we engage them from our own perspective.
The same is true of Scripture. Before asking what a passage says to us today, we should first seek to understand what God was revealing through it within the unfolding story of salvation. Only then can we faithfully discern how it speaks to our own lives.
Perhaps that is one small expression of discernment.
It is not rejecting the past, nor is it resisting every new interpretation. Rather, it is patiently listening before speaking, understanding before applying, and seeking truth before confirmation of our own assumptions.
As Christians, we know that every human longing for home ultimately finds its fulfilment in Christ.
Like Odysseus, we all journey through trials, make mistakes, and search for the place where we truly belong.
The difference is that, in Christ, we already know where home is.
And for me, that is enough.
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