Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, said it so nicely: “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” It certainly takes small minds that fill their time by making uncharitable remarks about others!
Gossip is idle conversation regarding other people’s affairs. For that matter gossip is surely wicked since it is a useless conversation which, instead of building God’s people, serves to destroy their growth in Christ. Gossip is sinful. Psalm 10 describes the slanderer as the one whose “mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity. He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the hapless, he lurks in secret like a lion in his covert; he lurks that he may seize the poor, he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net” (Ps. 10: 7-9). Mindful that gossip is a pest Saint Paul wisely advises Titus: “Remind them ... to speak evil of no one” (Tit 3:1-2). The bottom line of the Apostle of the Gentiles’ argument is that if one has nothing good to add then it is better for him/her to be silent!
Biblical data, especially the Apostle’s letters, openly states that gossip was a typical sin that afflicted the early church. The letter of James points to this direction when it says: “So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no human being can tame the tongue – a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God.
“From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so” (Jas 3:5-10).
Moreover, the Catechism of the Catholic Church rightly admonishes that “respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury”. It continues by saying that a person who slanders “becomes guilty: of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbour; of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another's faults and failings to persons who did not know them; of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them” (§ 2477).
What features in the latter paragraph are the words “detraction” and “calumny”. A current word which translates them both is backbiting.
With it Saint Thomas Aquinas also incorporates the sin of “tale-whispering”. The sin of speech unravels the manner in which a person aims to cause trouble behind another person’s back. There are some who justify their sin of gossiping by emphasising that they need to “vent” what is making them suffer. This is a classic excuse since it is founded on one of the capital sins, anger. If a person genuinely feels that s/he needs to “exhale” a problem with someone s/he is to share it with a person who can lead him/her deeper into the mystery of Christ.
How can we keep the evil monster of gossip in check? The following suggestions can help tame a poisonous tongue. First, persevering in prayer. Prayer leads to charity and charity necessarily directs to prayer. Second, regular reception of the Sacrament of Confession and the Eucharist is vital. Confession cleanses from the sin of gossip whereas the Eucharist mends our broken relationships because it opens us up to receive the necessary strength to be the friend, sibling and co-worker we are called to be. Third, conflicts and disagreements become opportunities for forgiveness and reconciliation.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
SAN GWANN