St. James the Less

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Today is the Feast of St. James the Less and St. Phillip

James the Less was the cousin of Jesus and the first Bishop of Jerusalem. Not to be confused with James the Greater, the brother of St. John who evangelized Spain, was martyred by Herod in 42 AD and whose body rests at Campo Stella in Spain.

James the Less preached the gospel with exceptional zeal in Jerusalem for over thirty years, and he inspired many people to become believers in Jesus. His successes were met with fierce opposition by the leaders of the Jews who wanted to kill him. In 62 AD a group of furious scribes and Pharisees demanded that James renounce Jesus, and when he flatly refused, they apprehended him, and hurled him down from the pinnacle of the Temple to an angry mob below. Still alive, the mob began to stone him, and as he prayed for their forgiveness, he was bludgeoned to death with clubs. He is buried in the Cathedral of St. James in the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem.

St. James pray for us!

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James gives us the Letter of James in the New Testament.

There in chapter 3 he writes of the great power and danger of gossip.

Once we put a bit into the horse's mouth, to make it do what we want, we have the whole animal under our control. Or think of ships: no matter how big they are, even if a storm wind is driving them, the man at the helm can steer them anywhere he likes by controlling a tiny rudder. So is the tongue only a tiny part of the body, but it can proudly claim that it does great things. Think how small a flame can set fire to a huge forest; the tongue is a flame like that. Among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a whole wicked world in itself: it infects the whole body; catching fire itself from hell, it sets fire to the whole wheel of creation. Wild animals and birds, reptiles and fish can all be tamed by man, and often are; but nobody can tame the tongue - it is a pest that will not keep still, full of deadly poison. We use it to bless the Lord and Father, but we also use it to curse men who are made in God's image: the blessing and the curse come out of the same mouth.

St James says, if you can control your tongue; you will have mastery over yourself.

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Gossip can be a violation of justice, even if what you are saying is true, to speak truths without legitimate cause.

Aquinas says this can be mortal sin – if done knowingly and willingly because it is a grave matter. Why? Because it is mortal sin to kill someone unjustly and one’s reputation is almost as valuable as their life – so to kill a person’s reputation is like committing murder.

St Francis de Sales in the Introduction to the Devout Life ch 29:

Slander or Gossip is a kind of murder, for we have three lives: the spiritual, which consists in the grace of God; the physical, which depend upon the soul; and the social, which consists in our good name. Sin deprives us of the first, death takes away the second, and slander robs us of the third.

The slanderer, by one blow of his tongue, commits three murders. He kills not only his own soul, and the soul of him that hears him, but also, by a spiritual murder, takes away the social life of the person slandered.

Gossip is a kind of terrorism because terrorism is indiscriminate – Gossip has such collateral damage that there is no way of knowing where it will end or who will be harmed.

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Gossip often comes from envy, but we can conquer envy and gossip with Goodwill.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “God “wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another.”

a. Want good for others: even competitors, even enemies

b. Think good of others: give them the benefit of the doubt, make excuses for them

c. Speak well of others: every person has the right to a good reputation

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Words betray the heart

Matthew 12:33 'Make a tree sound and its fruit will be sound; make a tree rotten and its fruit will be rotten. For the tree can be told by its fruit. Brood of vipers, how can your speech be good when you are evil? For a man's words flow out of what fills his heart. A good man draws good things from his store of goodness; a bad man draws bad things from his store of badness. So I tell you this, that for every unfounded word men utter they will answer on Judgement day, since it is by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words condemned.'

So, I challenge you to try - just for one day - to not gossip. See how you do, then reflect on envy.