Gossip

I have used this story before - Good stories serve well forever. The following is a story told by a priest to his congregation during a sermon. It comes from the film "Doubt".

"A woman was gossiping with a friend about a man she hardly knew." [I must remind you here that men gossip as much as women do and for all the same reasons. L] The priest looks up at the congregation and says: " I know none of you have ever done this." and then he continues. "That night she had a dream. A great hand appeared over her and pointed a finger down at her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession. She got the old parish priest and told him the whole thing.

"Is gossiping a sin?" she asked the old man. "Was that the hand of Almighty God pointing a finger at me? Should I be asking your absolution Father? Father, tell me, have I done something wrong?"

"Yes!", the priest answered. "Yes! You ignorantly badly brought up [person]! You've born false witness against your neighbor! You played fast and loose with his reputation and you should be heartily ashamed!"

The woman said she was sorry and asked forgiveness.

"Not so fast." said the priest. "I want you to go home, take a pillow off your bed, take it up to the roof, cut it open with a knife and return here to me."

So, the woman went home, took a pillow off her bed, got a knife from the kitchen, took them both up to the roof and stabbed and cut the pillow open. Then she went back to the priest and told him she'd done what he asked.

"Did you gut the pillow with a knife?" he asked.

"Yes, Father."

"And what was the result?" he asked.

"Feathers." she replied.

"Feathers." he repeated nodding his had up and down.

"Feathers everywhere, Father." she said, not yet getting the point.

The priest then told her: " Now, I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out on the wind."

Well," said the woman, "it can't be done, I don't know where they went. They flew all over"

"And that," said the priest, "is Gossip!"

If you take this story in on an organic level, either as the one who is gossiping or the one who is "innocently" listening, and live with it for awhile you will really understand what it means on a universal level. I heard, when I was very young, that gossip kills. As the years passed by, I discovered it was really true. Gossip kills everything.

Be At Peace, Do No Harm, BE