St. Francis de Sales: On Detraction

A friend is reading the book Letters to Persons in the World. She sends me a daily excerpt, and yesterday's was on detraction. It is another view, from St. Francis de Sales' letter to St. Jane Frances de Chantal.

"My dearest daughter,

"I beg you never to speak evil of your neighbor or say
anything, however little, which could offend him.
Nevertheless, one must not approve of the evil, flatter it,
or try to cover it up, but --when the welfare of the one of
whom one speaks requires it--one must speak with candor and
say frankly evil of evil, and blame blamable things;
because in doing so, God is glorified.  Above all, blame
the vice and spare as much as possible the persone to whom
the vice belongs, all the more so because the goodness of
God is so great that a single moment is sufficient for
entreating His grace.  And who can be sure that the one who
yesterday was a sinner, and evil, will be so today?

"When we look upon the actions of our neighbor, let us look
on them in the light that is the gentlest; and when we can
excuse neither the deed nor the intention of one whom we
otherwise know to be good, let us not judge, but remove
that (impulse) from our spirit and leave the judgement to
God.  When we cannot excuse the sin, let us render it at
least worthy of compassion, attributing it to the most
tolerable cause, such as ignorance or infirmity...

                                       Francis"

This is amazing! At every turn, in reading good books of saints, we find the Gospel message explained from all angles. The final lines demonstrate the good in giving the benefit yet to others, for example that my neighbor may struggle with a mental illness or personality disorder. However, it seems best to not even attribute much of anything to the sin, if possible. Perhaps "no comment" is the best rendering.