I am reading a great book right now, by Bodie and Brock Thoene called Fifth Seal. It has made me think about what life must have been like for Mary and Joseph just after they got married, and when it was apparent that she was pregnant already. In the book, they are going to a bar mitzvah and Mary's mother Anna gives them advice about how to handle the gossip of the town. She says:
"Head high at the bar mitzvah. And keep your mind clear...Smile at them if they fall silent as you pass. Remember, when they're talking about you, they're giving somebody else a rest. Pray for them, children. They violate the commandment not to murder with words as sharp as daggers. With speculation and lies passed on to others they bear false witness against the Lord's Anointed. Against the Son of David! An unkind word is a sword aimed at your heart, Mary. Meant to pierce you through with discouragement. The Lord, who is Judge of all, will break the blade of the slanderer one day. Pray for those who speak badly of you. Pity them."
What a miracle it would be to have a heart that reacted like this in the face of gossip. It's tragically ironic that the One Who is the Truth should be always attacked with lies. It happened then, it happens now. Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do you say I am?" He asks us still today. The answer is right there. The Son of God. The Son of Man. The Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Rereading what Anna spoke to Mary above pierces me as I see how often I participate in gossip or think wrongly of another. Also, my heart does not want to react with grace and pray when someone says something hurtful. It wants to catalogue all of the misdeeds and pains that it has received and respond in kind. But yuck. I don't want to be like that. I pray God give me the grace to respond with love and prayer to the sharp arrows of criticism or slander, and take as my example the compassion of our Lord as He died in agony: "Forgive them Father; they know not what they do."
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