Brother Anthony gave the most powerful sermon today on detraction and calumny.  He took one phrase out of the gospel (Luke 16:1-9) ..."There was a certain rich man who had a steward, who was reported to him as squandering his possessions....."   He took that phrase and launched into an explicit  description of detraction and calumny.  He even brought it down to the level of the children by calling it "tattling"  .   My oldest granddaughter was totally enthralled and after Mass said that she was going to try her best not to "tattle" on her sister anymore!  He reminded us that if it's none of our business, then we have NO RIGHT to say anything to anyone.  He explained the three "players" so to speak who are involved in the gossip:  one one who is telling it, the one who is listening and the one being talked about.
  He also mentioned stirring up trouble by going to someone and telling them what another said about them.  He explained when it was a mortal sin and when it was venial and by the time he was done, most all of us were squirming in our pews!  This young man is going to make an awesome priest!

   John the Evangelist uses a carefully chosen word. He does not say that the soldier

“struck” Christ’s side or “wounded” it or anything else of the kind, but

that he “opened” it. This wording gives us a picture of the door of life opening

to let the sacraments of the Church flow out, those sacraments without which no one

can enter into life which is true life. The out poured Blood was poured out for the

remission of sins.

 

 The water is an ingredient of the cup of salvation : it serves both for washing and for drinking.

 

 All this was foreshadowed when Noe was commanded to make a door in the side of the ark. This door was to admit the living creatures who were not to perish in the flood: they prefigured the Church. To foreshadow the same mystery, the first woman was made from the side of the man as he slept, and she was called Life and Mother of the Living. Thus a great good was prefigured before the great evil of sin. Here the second Adam, bowing His head, slept on the cross, that a wife might be formed for Him out of the water and Blood that flowed from His side as He slept. 

 

O death, by which the dead return to life! What is more cleansing than this Blood? What is more health-giving than this wound?

 A homily of St. Augustine, Bishop

 
Christ Consoled by the Angels (18th century), Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz
 
By nothing else except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ has death been brought low: The sin of our first parent destroyed, hell plundered, resurrection bestowed, the power given us to despise the things of this world, even death itself, the road back to the former blessedness made smooth, the gates of paradise opened, our nature seated at the right hand of God and we made children and heirs of God. By the cross all these things have been set aright…It is a seal that the destroyer may not strike us, a raising up of those who lie fallen, a support for those who stand, a staff for the infirm, a crook for the shepherded, a guide for the wandering,a perfecting of the advanced, salvation for soul and body, a deflector of all evils, a cause of all goods, a destruction of sin, a plant of resurrection, and a tree of eternal life. 

St. John Damascene