Fr. Arsenie Papacioc gives us an excellent example of how serious slandering each other can be. Fr. Arsenie was imprisoned for his Christian faith and suffered persecution under the communist regime in Romania.

Video recording: March 22, 2008
Subtitles: English, Romanian

Fr. Arsenie:

There was a hermit near a village, not far from the wilderness. And people from his village went to visit him… and villagers used to say that in their village there is a certain bad man…
And the hermit asked: “Is the man still bad?” “Still bad, father!” said the other person… And the hermit said: “Oh, oh, oh…” He said nothing else…
The third day an angel came to him and said, “God sent me to ask you, that the man you said is bad just died, and we wonder where to put him, in Heaven or hell? This is because you judged him…”
He realized… as I think you realize… He fell face down on the ground and it took years for him to receive an answer of forgiveness.
Be careful with slandering anyone!

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