Newsletter - 26 May 2024
Gossip
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. But instead of writing about one of the greatest and most beautiful mysteries of our faith, I thought I’d write about gossip 😊.
This is because I just received my May issue of Restoration, the newspaper put out by the Madonna House community, and there was an excellent article on this subject by Amy Barnes: “Becoming a True Gossip.”* Did you know that the origin of the word “gossip” is the old English word godsibb, meaning godparent or godchild, denoting the relationship between the two (see “God” and “sib”)?
Barnes begins with the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) (#2477) which addresses this subject in its article on the 8th of the 10 Commandments: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.” The CCC says this doesn’t just refer to calumny (spreading lies) but also to the sins of detraction and indiscretion, sins that Amy Barnes says are often committed by us “good Catholics.”
Detraction is “broadcasting the faults and failings of others unnecessarily.” It is “an offence against justice and charity, because it destroys a person’s reputation and honour, to which everyone enjoys a ‘natural right’.” A person’s faults, annoying habits, demanding personality, etc. are all things for me to bring to prayer, not things I talk about to someone who has no need to know. Indiscretion is the betrayal of confidence, “spreading information about someone that was not meant to be shared.” It can leave someone feeling betrayed and unable to trust you or others.
I don’t mean to point fingers. I am as guilty as anyone of careless comments, saying things I wouldn’t say about a person in their presence. That’s why I was so taken with this article, so convicted that gossip is a sin against love.
Ultimately, gossip is “our failure to recognise and uphold the life of Christ in another person,” the opposite of the original meaning of the word describing the relationship between a person and their godparent.
On this Trinity Sunday when we celebrate the relationship of love that dances between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – a pure and free love that wants only the best for the other – let us ask God to help us refrain from gossip and become icons of this kind of love.
*Used with permission from Madonna House Publications.© Restoration, Vol. 77 No. 5, May 2024 (full article will be posted on the Restoration website on 3 June)
Nancy Wood ccn
Focus of the Week
EVENING MASS
The next Sunday evening mass will be on 2nd June at 5.30pm.
The Mass includes music in a relaxed atmosphere, and is followed by the Cockfosters Parish Pub.
Sunday evening masses are held on the first Sunday of each month.