In Sunday’s gospel Jesus encounters the man born blind. Miraculously Jesus gives him the gift of sight and then the poor guy goes through the wringer of one interrogation after another about it all. The Pharisees have a miracle laid right in their laps, and if you are like me, I am wondering, “Wow, how did they miss that one? How could they be so blind!” Which is of course the question we should ask about them. But what about us?

All this made me begin to wonder what are the blind spots we still retain. There is no shortage of candidates. Maybe one blind spot we all share involves the one of the other gifts of God: speech. There are some studies that say 60% of conversations between adults are about someone who isn’t present and most of these are passing judgment of some kind or another. That is among adults. I was too timid to see if there were studies for middle- and high-schoolers. I pray they are better Christians than we adults! The characteristics of the conversations included gossip, idle chatter, lies, exaggerations, harsh attacks, and uncharitable observations and remarks. I don’t think any of us consider this an admirable list to be emulated. Why is it that we do so much harm with this God-given gift that is capable of so much good?

We all know it’s wrong to gossip, and no one wants to seem malicious. So why do we indulge in this guilty pleasure? Of course, why do we call it a “guilty pleasure?” Pleasure? I don’t know about that, but the “guilty” tag is correct. St. Matthew offers us some insight on the topic: “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak.” (Mt 12:36)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church includes gossip under the 8th Commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” St Thomas includes it in his treatise on justice (II, IIae 72-76) in the Summa since, by it, we unjustly harm the reputation of others, through either lies or truths shared inappropriately. Harm? Destroy a reputation might be a better description. I wonder if we shouldn’t have discussed gossip under the 5th Commandment: “Thou shall not kill.”

My dad did not tolerate our idle chatter or gossip. Our “hey, dad, did you hear….” was mostly met with, “Why I am surprised. That person called just this morning and had the nicest things to say about you. I can’t believe you would repay their kindness this way.” We knew the person had not called, but we were reminded of our blindness about ourselves. We were reminded that gossip’s sinful tendrils could be stopped, that we could shed a little of God’s light into the moment, and that we need not choose to remain blind.

I should have listened to my Dad more. I guess I am still a work in progress. At least there is still hope for me. I know I have a blind spot or two. And with God’s grace, I will continue to work on them.