On Being Beyond Gossip and Falsehoods

"But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you assemble as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and I partly believe it, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized." - 1 Cor. 11:17-19. 

I once heard a story from an exorcist about how one of the ways to detect a demonic presence is to simply bear witness to the truth. When the investigating exorcist with charitable intent tells the truth to an individual, that individual or another one of the demon’s accomplice will attack the priest in order to ward him off, deter him from the rite or even pray for the possessed or oppressed soul. As demons are of lies and deceptions, they will retaliate when the truth bears its teeth. These retaliations, I was told, are not physical but rather those that are designed to break the spirit.

For instance, the exorcist would confront an individual suspected of suffering from a degree of demonic oppression about the continued sacrilege against the Holy Eucharist, receiving while in a state of mortal sin (if you are confused or not a Catholic, see the commentary below). He tells the individual to go partake in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and be in a state of grace before receiving next time around. All these things he has done with the intent to cure the individual. Yet the suffering individual, who is under the influence of a demon, would proceed to mar the reputation and the character of the priest, ostracize him from the community, to turn the community members against him. The individual would gossip, mentioning the priest by the name. The individual would also fabricate facts, painting the priest’s approach as being him sexually advancing upon the individual. The individual tells others that one had to go to the police because the harassment was that severe. But the priest is undeterred. After all, of whom shall he fear when the Lord is his light? He confirmed the presence of the demonic, and that is enough. Through the confirmation, he can pray for the oppressed individual and all those becoming infected by the demon.   

           

            I hope the story above was entertaining for you. I suppose most of you reading this probably don’t believe in exorcisms and demons. But I hope that it was a fascinating story. After all, even the most irreligious have some level of fascination with the spiritual. Fictional or no, religious nonsense or no, there is nonetheless a lesson to be extracted from the story: Gossips are always committed by the guilty.

If you attended a public high school like me, maybe you had a similar experience as mine, enlightened to the level of moral degeneracy human beings are willing to stoop down to. There would be boys, talking about how they had sex with a girl. In many cases, they never did, but they say that they did just to shame a girl that rejected them or hide the fact that they were rejected. Even when they did in fact have sex, they would blow the story out of proportion, flaunting how “nasty” the girl was for him. And there would be girls, talking about how this guy was a “creep,” painting an innocent romantic approach as being harassment. They enjoy the fact that they are pursued; it feeds their narcissism and hides their insecurities. So they blow out of proportion how much they are pursued. Perhaps it springs forth from a lack of moral conscience or it is a kind of immaturity, but such gossiping often lead to grave moral consequences, do they not? How many of our children commit suicide because they feel ostracized by the community?

Gossip and presumptions always have a way of bringing about evil thoughts. Jealousy, envy, suspicion, anger, and malice toward the neighbors always follow, and such thoughts infect the minds of the neighbors in return. Like a pathogen, the lies birthed from gossip and presumptions spread from one to another. Consider how people manipulate facts about those they are in conflict with.

Often, one of my associates will come to me and complain about a person they are in conflict with. They would mention the person by one’s name and proceed to explain the situation away. The next day, the opponent of my associate would come to me and talk about the same subject. This time, though, a different story is told. It was clear to me that both were in the wrong, that both were guilty. Yet they actively manipulated the situation so that they come out as the “winner” of the conflict by painting themselves as the protagonist. It is said that the devil operates among partial truths, among unmentioned facts and ambiguities. These individuals actively working to create enmity bring about divisions as if under the command of Satan. 

I suppose I could offer my personal advice, the methods by which one can stop oneself from being a false witness to the truth:

To stop myself from gossiping, I have long adopted certain rules when I get into a conflict with a person. (1) When I need to vent, I never talk to someone who might know the person with whom I am in conflict. (2) I never mention the person by name. (3) If I do hear a gossip, I do not spread it. (4) I always remind myself that what I perceived is what I perceived, not the objective truth. (5) If I need to talk about the conflict by mentioning a name, do so only in seeking after a neutral third party to resolve the issue after offering the opponent the time to apologize and forgive. After all, it is commanded to “not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.” (Exodus 23:1). Doing these five things will not stop your opponent from gossiping about you and spread falsehoods. But it is further commanded to turn the other cheek, and commanded also to bear witness to the truth. One can either admonish the sinner with the fullness of the truth, or, as the situation demands, use discretion to reveal only part of the truth. There is a careful balance to be reached if one is to avoid contradiction.  

The bottom line, the quick summary of what I mean to convey here, is this: Have doubt, by default, the words spoken or facts revealed by those who name one's opponent. For those who do so are more likely than not the guilty one, manipulating the situations.

To end, I would like to leave a quote from Louis Lavelle, a philosopher whose works have been influenced by the likes of St. Augustine: 

“Because every bad will pursues isolated ends which, sacrificing the whole to the part, always contaminate the integrity of the whole and threaten to annihilate it. Evil always seeks to divide and destroy. Its actions create an interior rupture where perversity itself gives better pleasure. It causes conflict and enmity between persons creating harmony and discord. It militates against the common good.”





Commentary About the Exorcist's Story

If you are a Catholic, perhaps you are familiar with the fact pattern mentioned above. Apparently they happen often. Catholics believe, or at least they should, that 1) repeated reception of the Holy Eucharist while being unworthy invokes allowance of increased demonic attacks for there is nothing demons love most than an act of Sacrilege against God Himself. 2) Strange desire to receive while not permitted is also indicative of demonic activity for, as mentioned previously, sacrilege is an act of love for evil things. Receiving in a state of grace, as are all forms of sacraments, is a form of exorcism like the sacrament of baptism. See 1 Cor. 11:27-34. For these reasons, demons are believed to react strongly against the mention of the Sacraments or exposed to them in a worthily manner. For these precise reasons, Catholics believe (or at least they should), those who seek to eradicate various forms of sacrileges in the Church are the ones ostracized by the community most often. After all, the end game is never pretty. 

A friendly reminder that divisions and gossiping are nigh demonic.