A woman was gossiping to a friend about a man she hardly knew. That night she had a dream. A great hand appeared over her and pointed down on her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelmingly sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession. She went to the old priest and told him everything.
“Is gossiping a sin?” she asked the old man.
“Was that the hand of god almighty pointing the finger at me? Should I be asking for your absolution father? Tell me. Have I done something wrong?”.
“Yes!” the priest answered her.
“Yes! You ignorant woman! You’ve born false witness against your neighbor. You’ve played fast and loose with his reputation. You should be ashamed!”.
So the woman said she was sorry and asked for forgiveness.
“Not so fast!” said the priest.
“I want you to go home, take a pillow upon 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 off the drawer, took the fire escape to the roof and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old priest as instructed.
“Did you gut the pillow with a 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 in the wind”.
“Well…..it cant be done” she said. “I don’t know where they went. The wind took them all over”.
“And THAT….” said the priest “….is gossip!”
-The movie “Doubt”-
