Spirago-Clarke on Scandal

ABS is beginning a series of posts on Scandal for reasons that will become evident over the course of the next few days.


"The Catechism explained An exhaustive explanation of The Catholic Religion"

2. He commits a still greater sin who destroys the spiritual 
life of his neighbor, either by tempting him to evil or by giving 
scandal. 

" If thou persuade thy neighbor to sin," St. Augustine says, 
" thou art his murderer." And he who gives scandal is guilty of 
murder. Nay, even of a greater sin than murder, because the life of 
tins soul is of far more value than the life of the body. If a thousand 
men were put to death, less harm would be done than if one soul were 
condemned to everlasting perdition. If the blood of Abel cried to 
heaven for vengeance on his brother, how much more will the blood 
of the lost soul cry for vengeance on its murderer. How cursed are 
they who are the cause of so great a calamity to another ! Tempta 
tion and scandal are all the more fatal because the evil is handed 
on from one to another. He who has .been led into sin, leads another 
into it in his turn, as the bird that the fowler has entrapped serves 
as a decoy to bring others into the snare. Like an avalanche, small 
in the beginning, but increasing in its course, carrying vast masses 
of snow with it into the abyss, the tempter drags countless souls with 
him to perdition. Others corrupt their fellow-men by the scandal 
they give, as leaven pervades the whole of the flour in which it is 
placed. 

Temptation is the endeavor, by subtle means, to incite a man 
to sin. 

The tempter is like the devil, who by his wiles, led our first parents 
in paradise to disobey God. He goes to work craftily, like the fisher 
man who catches fish with a baited hook, or the fowler, who lays traps 
and spreads bird-lime to ensnare birds. In the case of almost all the 
holy martyrs before their execution, attempts were made to induce 
them, either by blandishments and promises, or by threats and tor 
ture, to abjure their faith and transgress the commandment of God. 
What trouble the Proconsul took with the aged Bishop Polycarp; 
what efforts the King of Bohemia made to force St. John Nepomucene 
to violate the seal of confession! He offered him a bishopric, put him to torture, and finally cast him into the Moldau. Those 
who dissuade others from what is good also deserve the name of 
tempter. Temptation is the devil s own work. He does not appear 
in person to seduce mankind, for then every one would recoil from 
him; he leaves men to do his business for him, and thus attains 

his 
end more certainly. 

Scandal is given when by some sinful word, deed, or omis 
sion, we shock our neighbor, and perhaps cause him to sin. 

For instance, a man gives scandal if he is seen in public in a 
state of inebriation, if he talks indecent talk, makes use of oaths in 
the presence of children, eats meat openly on Friday, does servile 
work on Sunday, behaves indecorously in church, publishes ungodly 
books, decries religion and the ministers of religion in the papers 
and periodicals, etc. What he does instigates another to do the 
same; this is true most of all in regard to children, who are sure to 
imitate anything wrong which they see done by their parents or 
elders. He who gives scandal is like a man who digs a pit, into 
which another is likely to fall and break his neck. Scandal is an 
oifence against the love of one s neighbor. That it is a mortal sin 
we gather from Our Lord s words concerning him who scandalizes 
others: "It were better for him that a mill-stone should be hanged 
about his neck and that he should be drowned in the depth of the 
sea" (Matt, xviii. 6). Again, Our Lord says that at the end of the 
world His angels shall gather out of His kingdom all who have 
given scandal, and cast them into the furnace of fire : there shall be 
weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. xiii. 41). But if the scandal 
given is slight, or unintentional, it is not a great sin, or is no sin at 
all. 

We ought, in as far as possible, to avoid giving scandal, and 
for this end we must observe the following rules: 

1. We ought to abstain from actions which are not only 
lawful, but good in themselves, which are of counsel but not 
of precept, if they may possibly give scandal. 

If any one is dispensed from the Friday abstinence on account of 
bad health, he should refrain from eating meat before others, if he 
knows that they will take scandal at it. And if this is impossible, 
he should explain to those who are at table with him why he eats it; 
if they take scandal then, he is not to blame. St. Paul declares : 
" If meat scandalize my brother, I will never eat flesh " (1 Cor. viii. 
13). And the aged Eleazar preferred death to even appearing to 
eat swine s flesh, lest young persons might be scandalized, and be 
deceived into thinking he was gone over to the life of the heathen 
12 Mach. vi. 24). 

2. We must, however, in no case omit any act which is com- 
tianded by God, even if others will take scandal at it; yet we 
should in as far as possible prevent the scandal by some words 
of explanation or instruction. 

By doing what the law of God enjoins on us, we do not give