Dear Beloved.
- St Thomas defines scandal as " a word or act which gives occasion for the spiritual ruin of one's neighbor ". In other words scandal is a trap which you set for your neighbor so that he can lose his soul.
a. Direct Scandal: When you directly tempt and induce another to commit sin.
b. Indirect Scandal : when you use impure /sinful words and actions to corrupt others and make sin attractive and desirous.
- Every scandal is always a mortal sin.
- God created the souls of all men in His image Gen1:26- by His own breath. Other creatures including angels, He created a "fiat" Gen 2:7. God also loved the soul of your neighbor from all eternity - with an everlasting love, Her. 31:3. Moreover God made us so as to reign with Him forever, 2 Pet 1:4. God Himself is the everlasting reward of every soul, Gen 15:1. See therefore the value of one soul.
- But nothing can show the value which God sets on the souls of men more clearly than our redemption. ' Ask your Redeemer how precious you are" ,says St Eucherius. We judge the value of everything by the price paid for it by an intelligent purchaser. Now Jesus Christ purchased the soul of men with His own blood, 1 Cor. 6:20." It therefore means that the value of a soul is the Blood of Christ - the Blood of God" - says St. Hilary. So our Lord tells us that whatsoever you do to the least of My brothers, you do to Me. My 25:40.
- To give scandal then is to rob God of a child, and to murder the soul for whose salvation Christ spent His blood and His life . And so St. Leo calls the authors of scandals "Murderers" .because they kill not the body but the soul,rubbishing all the graces Christ obtained for that soul through "His suffering and death" 1 Cor. 8:12. Not satisfied with their own destruction, they labor to destroy others.
- Of course God will react at the destruction of His children. " Woe to him from whom scandal comes" My 18:7." It were better for him not to have been born" Mt 26:24 ." It were better that a millstone be tied around his neck and he be drowned in the bottom of the sea" Mk 9:41;Mt 18:6.
When a lioness returns to her den and finds her whelps murdered, woe betide the murderer if she sets her eyes on him, " I will require his blood at your hands" Ezek 3:20; " Thou shall not pity him, but shall require life for life " Dt. 19:21. You have destroyed a soul; you must suffer the loss of your own - unless you repent now.
- What terrible punishment awaits those who give scandal, such that Christ threatened that it were better they were not born at all? St. Alphonsus says that the reason why Christ prefer they be drowned at the bottom of the sea and pity them. Both angels and saints abominate the soul that lead others to perdition.
- St. john Chrysostom says that Scandal is so abominable to God that through He overlooks every grievous sins, He cannot allow the sin of Scandal to pass without consummate punishment. God Himself said the same thing through the prophet Ezekiel :
" Every man of the house of Israel, if he..... set up the stumbling block of his iniquity.... I will make him an example and a proverb, and will cut him off from the midst of my people " Ez. 14:7-8.
- We see in the Old Testament how God punished some sins of scandal. God punished the house of Eli the prophet because he did not correct his sons who gave scandal by stealing meat offered in sacrifice, and also laying with the women who waited before the tabernacle of the Lord. Said God to Samuel about Eli :
" Behold I do a thing in Israel of which the ears of whoever hears of it shall tingle. I will judge the house of Eli forever, for iniquity, because he knew that his sons did wickedly, and did not chastise them. Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of his house shall not be expiated with victims nor offerings forever. " (cf. 1 kings 3:11-14).
- God punished King Jeroboam and wiped out his entire prosperity from the face of the earth, not simply because he sinned, but that he made the whole Israel to sin. God punished the wicked queen Jezebel with a very special punishment. She was thrown down from a window and devoured by dogs, so that nothing remained but her skull, and the feet, and extremities of her hands. Why? Because she set Ahab the King on to every evil.
I WILL NOW GIVE YOU SOME EXAMPLES OF SCANDALOUS BEHAVIOR. MARK FOR YOURSELVES THE ONE THAT YOU ARE GUILTY OF:
- Displaying ill-gotten wealth/riches.
- Making mockery of those who pray or go to fail Mass to tempt them not to continue.
- Ridiculing those who practice virtue.
- Owning or operating hotels and guest houses with prostitutes and call-girls.
- Husband or wife committing adultery with the knowledge of their children and relations.
- Impure touches and gestures.
- Fathers and mothers who, instead of correcting and punishing their children, encourage them to associate with had companions, frequent dangerous house.
- Even if somebody is the apple of your eye, pluck both the right eye and the apple and cast it off from you it is better for you tonlose an eye and save your soul, than to go to hell with your eyes and its apple.
Lesson learnt :
- Sandal is very terrible act and situation we should please stop and repent for those of us who find it as a sleeping tablet. We should try and train our children the God way, if time permit you beat and train them well beating a child doesn't kill it makes them heal from their wrongs.
May God keep us free from scandal to people. Amy He also keep us safe from being affected or influenced by the scandals of wicked people who do not frsr God. Amen.
Happy Independence Day. I'm proud to be Black and a Nigerian. š³š¬š³š¬š³š¬
Love you all š