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Objection 1: It would seem that active scandal can be found in the
perfect. For passion is the effect of action. Now some are
scandalized passively by the words or deeds of the perfect, according
to Mt. 15:12: "Dost thou know that the Pharisees, when they
heard this word, were scandalized?" Therefore active scandal can be
found in the perfect.
Objection 2: Further, Peter, after receiving the Holy Ghost,
was in the state of the perfect. Yet afterwards he scandalized the
gentiles: for it is written (Gal. 2:14): "When I saw that
they walked not uprightly unto the truth of the Gospel, I said to
Cephas," i.e. Peter, "before them all: If thou being a Jew,
livest after the manner of the gentiles, and not as the Jews do, how
dost thou compel the gentiles to live as do the Jews?" Therefore
active scandal can be in the perfect.
Objection 3: Further, active scandal is sometimes a venial sin.
But venial sins may be in perfect men. Therefore active scandal may
be in perfect men.
On the contrary, Active scandal is more opposed to perfection, than
passive scandal. But passive scandal cannot be in the perfect. Much
less, therefore, can active scandal be in them.
I answer that, Active scandal, properly so called, occurs when a
man says or does a thing which in itself is of a nature to occasion
another's spiritual downfall, and that is only when what he says or
does is inordinate. Now it belongs to the perfect to direct all their
actions according to the rule of reason, as stated in 1 Cor.
14:40: "Let all things be done decently and according to
order"; and they are careful to do this in those matters chiefly
wherein not only would they do wrong, but would also be to others an
occasion of wrongdoing. And if indeed they fail in this moderation in
such words or deeds as come to the knowledge of others, this has its
origin in human weakness wherein they fall short of perfection. Yet
they do not fall short so far as to stray far from the order of reason,
but only a little and in some slight matter: and this is not so grave
that anyone can reasonably take therefrom an occasion for committing
sin.
Reply to Objection 1: Passive scandal is always due to some active
scandal; yet this active scandal is not always in another, but in the
very person who is scandalized, because, to wit, he scandalizes
himself.
Reply to Objection 2: In the opinion of Augustine (Ep. xxviii,
xl, lxxxii) and of Paul also, Peter sinned and was to be blamed,
in withdrawing from the gentiles in order to avoid the scandal of the
Jews, because he did this somewhat imprudently, so that the gentiles
who had been converted to the faith were scandalized. Nevertheless
Peter's action was not so grave a sin as to give others sufficient
ground for scandal. Hence they were guilty of passive scandal, while
there was no active scandal in Peter.
Reply to Objection 3: The venial sins of the perfect consist
chiefly in sudden movements, which being hidden cannot give scandal.
If, however, they commit any venial sins even in their external words
or deeds, these are so slight as to be insufficient in themselves to
give scandal.
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