Dear Friends,
Jesus could not be clearer: gossip is the act of judging other! It is that simple. How easy it is to point this fault out in the lives of others! Just think for one minute: how many acts of judgement have you made already today? "Look at the way she is dressed!" "Why does he always have to act so silly?" "Don't these kids have parents to teach them how to be have ... especially in church or at the grocery store?"
Why do we become involved in this "sport" so easily and frequently? Including myself, how difficult would it be for us to attempt a refrain from gossip/judging others? Try it for just one day or even one hour. We feel the need to do? Why? So often getting involved in this sport is a way of feeling better about ourselves: "Thanks be to God I am not like so and so who ....." Pope Francis spoke about gossipers and rash judges as hypocrites! Further he said their is no innocent gossip! Think about that.
When I was a youngster, I recall so well the many times my grandmother Jordan, a very strong and active Methodist woman and wife, would not hesitate to stop my grandfather if he was doing a gossiping job on someone. "Okay, Ned," she would say, "time to stop your talking that way about ...." That surely is a practice unknown and much less practiced in our culture today. I remember a neighbor, my piano teacher, who overheard an unkind remark about another neighbor, turned to me and said, "Now, Milton, what you heard said just now is not the way Catholics are to behave toward each other." I am afraid my teacher would be appalled by today's conversations.
It is through personal, private prayer with Jesus that we overcome such a daily practice of wasting so many words! In our prayers we should let the love God has for us be our concern! Let God love us and I am sure we will not have time to be gossipers or judges of others!
Oremus pro invicem!
Fr. Milt
