Gossip

Há dias vi o filme Doubt (Imdb) com Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep e Amy Adams. Apesar de ser um filme que gira muito à volta de freiras e padres, considerei-o mais humano do que necessariamente religioso. Gostei imenso do filme e dos sermões do padre Flynn. Especialmente de um deles, sobre os boatos que usa uma bem escolhida metáfora para mostrar o alcance e estrago que poderá causar uma falsa suspeita "lançada ao vento".

Eu considero que isso já aconteceu comigo ainda recentemente e não sei até que ponto as pessoas de fora do assunto poderão interpretar de forma errada a "boquinha" que foi lançada numa tentativa de demonstrar que eu não sou uma pessoa íntegra. Posso dizer-vos com a mais pura das certezas que não sou perfeita, estou bem longe disso. Mas também vos digo com a mesma certeza que não tenho tendência nem perfil para a mentira, fraude ou roubo.

Podem ler o sermão a seguir ou aqui (http://www.hirideyo.com/journal/iris/2009/03/02/sermons_doubt):

"A woman was gossiping with a friend about a man she hardly knew - I know none of you have ever done this - that night she had a dream. A great hand appeared over her and pointed down at her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession. She got the old parish priest, Father O’Rourke, and she told him the whole thing.

‘Is gossiping a sin?’ she asked the old man. ‘Was that the hand of God Almighty pointing a finger at me? Should I be asking your absolution? Father, tell me, have I done something wrong?’

(Irish Brogue)
‘Yes!’ Father O’Rourke answered her. ‘Yes, you ignorant, badly broughtup female! You have borne false witness against your neighbor, you have played fast and loose with his reputation, and you should be heartily ashamed!’

So the woman said she was sorry and asked for forgiveness.

‘Not so fast!’ says O’Rourke. ‘I want you to go home, take a pillow up on your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me!’

So the woman went home, took a pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to the roof, and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old parish priest as instructed.

‘Did you gut the pillow with the knife?’ he says.

‘Yes, Father.’

‘And what was the result?’

‘Feathers,’ she said.

‘Feathers?’ he repeated.

‘Feathers everywhere, Father!’

‘Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out on the wind!’

‘Well,’ she said, ‘it can’t be done. I don’t know where they went. The wind took them all over.’

‘And that,’ said Father O’Rourke, ‘is GOSSIP!’

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen."