Anytime I reflect on the eighth commandment I am reminded of a story told to me by one of my old IHM grade school teachers.  It has to do with a wagging tongue and St. Philip Neri.  It is reported that this holy confessor was once asked how difficult it is to repair a person’s name and reputation once it has been soiled by gossip and other slanderous and mean talk.  Philip Neri was quick in his response.  He directed the person to take a bag of feathers to a church belfry on a very windy day.  Cast them to the wind, he directed, and then proceed to gather up every single one.  Noting that it would be an impossible task, St. Philip Neri said that it is equally impossible to take back our negative, spurious and sometimes damning remarks about another (whether true or not).  I have never forgotten that story.  It is a lesson for life.

One of my brothers returned home from school one day quoting one of his IHM mentors: “Thou shalt not stretch the rubber of thy own neck”,- freely translated mind your own business.

It is said that our national past time is unnecessary and harmful gossip.  If you can’t say something nice about someone else then keep your mouth shut.

I invite you to check out the Letter to James, chapter 3.  It speaks of restraining the tongue.  What a better place a community would be if we guarded our words.  If a person is without fault in speech, he is a man (she is a woman) in the fullest sense. Jas. 3:2 James compares the tongue to the rudder of a great ship, small as it is, yet it makes great pretensions.  Every form of life has been tamed except the human tongue.  James’ best line is 3:9 – we use it [the tongue] to say, “praised be the Lord and Father”, then we use it to curse men (and women), though they are made in the likeness of God.

A person once remarked to me that receiving Holy Communion on the hand is disrespectful.  Hands are often dirty and…imagine where those hands have been!  I immediately thought of James 3:9!  I don’t deny dirty hands, but what about a dirty tongue!

Slander, detraction, gossip, lies, mean and nasty remarks about someone that you don’t like or agree with – negative words spewing from your mouth accompanied by hate in the eyes are all sins (and at times serious sins) against the eighth commandment.  This commandment forbids haughty, self-righteousness and superior attitudes that an individual has towards another that assaults their very dignity as an image of God.

Be truthful in all things and be free from all resentments with others.  St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More valued the truth so highly that they were willing to die for it.  Thomas More spoke the truth and never (as at political odds as  he was with the king) did he speak unkindly of his friend, the king.

Psalm 26:4:  I don’t sit with deceivers, nor with hypocrites do I mingle.   That’s good advice for a weary world that yearns for kindness, a sweet smile, a word of affirmation.  It is a blessing and not a curse that needs to be on the lips of mankind.