"How much gossip there is in the Church! How we
Christians gossip!" A behavior that can take on three aspects:
disinformation, defamation and slander and "all three are sins."
Again
today, at Mass celebrated in St. Martha, Pope Francis recounted an episode in
the life of St. Peter and today too uses it to warn the Christians of our time.
The
episode, as reported by Vatican Radio, is one in which Jesus addressed to
Peter, asking him: "What is it to you?" Because the Prince of the Apostles
was meddling in John's life.
Peter, the Pope
pointed out, had "a dialogue of love" with the Lord, but then the
dialogue "is diverted to another track," and he also suffers from a
temptation: "to interfere in the lives of others." How do you say
"vulgar," said the Pope, Peter becomes "nosy".
Focus is
therefore on two modes of this mix in the lives of others. First, the
"comparison", "to compare oneself with others." When there
is this comparison, Pope Francis said, "we end up in bitterness and even
envy, but envy rusts the Christian community, "it brings much hurt,"
the "devil wants that." The second mode of this temptation, he added,
is gossip. It begins "in an educated way," but then we end up
"feeling bad".
"We all chat in
Church! As Christians we chat! The chatter is hurtful? We hurt one another. It
is as if we want to put each other down.: instead of growing one makes the
other feel small while I feel great. That will not do! It seems nice to chat
... I do not know why, but it looks nice. Like sweet of honey, right? You take
one and then another, and another, and another, and in the end you have a stomach
ache. And why ? The chatter is like that eh? It is 'sweet at first and it ruins
you, it ruins your soul! Rumours are destructive in the Church, they are
destructive ... It's 'a little' like the spirit of Cain who killed his brother,
his tongue; it kills his brother!"
On this road, the
Holy Father said, "we become Christians of good manners and bad
habits." But how do we do this ? Normally, Pope Francis noted, "we do
three things". "We supply misinformation: we tell only half that
suits us and not the other half, the other half we do not say because it is not
convenient for us. Some smile ... Is that true or not? Did you see that thing?
It goes on. The second is defamation: When a person truly has a flaw, it is
big, they tell it, 'like a journalist' ... And the character of this person is
ruined. And the third is the slander of saying things that are not true. It is
like killing ones brother! All three - disinformation, defamation and slander -
are sins! This is sin! It is to slap Jesus in the person of his children, his
brothers".
That is why Jesus
does with us what he did with Peter when he says: "What is it to you?
Follow me, "The Lord in this instance" points the way ". "'This
kind of talk will not do you any good, because it will just bring to the Church
a spirit of destruction. Follow me! '. These are the beautiful words of Jesus,
it is so clear, that he has so much love for us. As if to say: 'Don't have
fantasies, believing that salvation is in the comparisons with others or in
gossip. Salvation is to go behind me '. Following Jesus! Today we ask the Lord
Jesus to give us this grace not to ever get involved in the lives of others,
not to become Christians of good manners and bad habits, it is to follow Jesus,
to walk behind Jesus on his way. And this is enough".
During his
homily, Pope Francis also recalled an episode from the life of St. Therese who
wondered why Jesus gave so much to one and not to another. The older sister
then took a thimble and a glass and filled them with water and then asked
Therese which of the two was more full. "But both are full," said the
future saint. Jesus, the Pope said, does this with us", "he does not
care if you're big, you're or small." What interests him is "if you
are filled with the love of Jesus."