Scandal

Scandal is a needless word or deed which does spiritual harm to those who hear or observe it. Scandal is word or deed that occasions sin in another; it is bad example.

In the person scandalized (that is, led to sin) the scandal is passive; in the person doing or saying the scandalous thing, the scandal is active. Active scandal isa sin against charity, which bids us seek our neighbor’s good. Active scandal is not only what actually leads a person to sin, butit is also what is intended to lead him to sin (or, by its nature is calculated to lead him to sin), even if, as a fact,he does not commit sin. Passive scandal is sometimes taken, by mistake or by perversity, from what is not, in itself, calculated to lead a person to sin.

Scandal is a special kind of sin, because it is opposed to a special kind of good work, which is called fraternalcorrection.

Scandal, in the person who actively gives it, is either a mortal or a venial sin, according to the gravity of the scandalous word or deed, and also according to the awareness andthe intention of the scandal-izer.

Scandal is taken by (that is, affects) persons of a mind unsettled in adherence to good. Those who adhere perfectly to God by charity are not scandalized; passive scandal is not found in them.

Nor can those perfectly united to God by charity be the cause of scandal; they cannot be active scandalizers. For scandal is inordinate, and solidly virtuous persons direct their lives with order; they live according to the direction of St. Paul (I Cor.14:40): “Let all things be done decently, and according to order.” The slight weaknesses of thoroughly good people never amount to an occasion of sin in others.

There is a type of passive scandal, called pharisaical, or “scandal of the Pharisees,“which tries to make evil out of what is good, just as the Phariseestried to make our Lord’s words and deeds seem seditious and even diabolical. There is another type of passive scandal, called”scandal of the little ones” or scandal of the weak,which sees evil where there is none, not by reason of malice, but by want of understanding and lack of instruction. We should neverforego a spiritual good because of pharisaical scandal, for this type of scandal is born of hypocrisy and malice, and is to be treated with contempt. But we ought to do all we can, without being guilty of sinful remissness, to avoid what occasions the scandal of the weak.

We are not always obliged to forego all claim, even on temporal goods, because of scandal of the weak. But the scandal should be removed by explanation or instruction. If this cannot be done, there are occasions on which we must forego temporal goods to avoid giving scandal. St. Paul (I Cor. 8:13) says that if his eating meat will scandalize his brother, he will not eat meat.