The scandal caused by clerical contentions
Father Coleridge sets out the links between pride and ambition (particularly in those in authority) and scandal and humility – preparing the ground for a longer
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Editor’s Notes
In this mini-series, Father Coleridge discusses the ambition of the Apostles and the harm that this can cause in churchmen – before moving to his discussion of scandal in general, and its relation to the guardian angels. Part of the section of the Gospel on which Coleridge is commenting is read on the feasts of the Holy Angels, including St Michael (September 29th).
This passage on humility, simplicity and spiritual childhood is particularly fitting for the days following Michaelmas, in which the feast day of St Thérèse of Lisieux falls.
Here are some of the events treated in this Gospel passage in question:
He asked them: What did you treat of in the way?
But they held their peace, for in the way they had disputed among themselves, which of them should be the greatest.
And sitting down, he called the twelve and saith to them: If any man desire to be first, he shall be the last of all and be minister of all. And taking a child, he set him in the midst of them. Whom when he had embraced, he saith to them: Whosoever shall receive one such child as this in my name receiveth me. And whosoever shall receive me receiveth not me but him that sent me.
John answered him, saying: Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, who followeth not us: and we forbade him.
But Jesus said: Do not forbid him. For there is no man that doth a miracle in my name and can soon speak ill of me. For he that is not against you is for you. For whosoever shall give you to drink a cup of water in my name, because you belong to Christ: amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.
And whosoever shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me: it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea. (Mark 9.32-41)
At the same time, the Apostles had been discussing who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven: Fr Coleridge discusses Our Lord’s answer to this question, with particular reference to humility and spiritual childhood.
The Greater in the Kingdom
The Preaching of the Cross, Part I
Chapter VII
St. Matt. xviii. 1–14; St. Mark ix. 32–49; St. Luke ix. 46-8; Story of the Gospels, § 86-7
Burns and Oates, London, 1886.
Our Lord and the man who cast out devils in his name
After speaking on the question which had been asked Him by St. John in the name of the other disciples, our Lord went on, as it seems, without interrupting His discourse, to the kindred subject which was probably in His mind at the time, when, before the question of St. John, He had taken the child, embraced him, and said a few words about the blessing of those who should receive such in His Name.
It may be considered that our Lord simply returns to the subject of which He was already speaking, and of which His Sacred Heart was now very full, for the sake of the Apostles. Or it may be thought that His words have some reference to the matter of the question itself which had been asked Him.
For it may be that He looked on this man, who had been forbidden by the Apostles to cast out devils in His Name, as one who was in good faith and therefore might have been left alone, in the prospect of his being led, by the grace which he had hitherto followed faithfully, to a still more perfect intelligence concerning our Lord and His Church. In this case this man would not have wished any longer to take on himself the office of an exorcist without being, as we should say, in open communion with the Apostolic body, and, far more than that, without being a close follower of our Lord Himself in every respect.
For perhaps such persons, when it is safe to leave them alone, are better left alone, because there may be a danger of giving them some scandal if they are roughly and prematurely interfered with as by an act of authority. In this sense we may understand that the man in question represented a class of little ones, of whom great care must be taken, lest they should be scandalized.
Or, as has been said, it may be better to understand the words which now follow about the scandalizing of little ones as continuing the main subject which our Lord had before Him from the beginning of this discourse. Even then, there is some difficulty remaining as to the connection of the discourse. For it seems as if, when our Lord began, He had in His mind the instruction of the Apostles about the danger of ambition, rivalry, and contention, of which the first germs had been discernible in the conversation which they had held among themselves, and concerning which they had now been afraid to answer our Lord.
It may be asked, what is the immediate connection between the contention or discussion, who should be the greater, and the giving scandal to little ones of which our Lord now proceeds to speak?
It may be answered that our Lord might well foreknow that there was to be no more fruitful source of scandal in the Church, than the ambition, and rivalry, and contentiousness which might be from time to time prevalent among the ministers of the Christian sanctuary. Thus there may have been in His mind the clearest connection between the two subjects. The words which He had just uttered about the cup of water given in His Name, would naturally call to His mind the little ones of His flock.
For He had already used that image in His charge to these same Apostles, only, instead of speaking of them as the recipients of the charity of the cup of water, He had then spoken of the little ones as the recipients. Thus the phrase ‘the little ones’ might rise to His lips, and certainly it embraces, in its natural Christian signification, not simply children like the boy whom He had just taken and placed by His own side, but all those who, in faith, or in innocence, or in simplicity, or in their partial and imperfect knowledge of the truth or of their own duties, might fall under the general character of little ones.
And the strong language which He now went on to use on the subject of scandal is easily accounted for, when we consider the immensity of that mischief which our Blessed Lord had then before His mind. The difficulty, about the connection of our Lord’s words, thus resolves itself into the misery of our own very imperfect appreciation of the mischievousness and scandalousness of contentions among Apostolic men.
If we perfectly understood the evils which these faults in her ministers entail on the Church, we should not require any explanation of the apparent difficulty of the connection of our Lord’s words.
The danger of scandal
The passage begins by a statement of the danger incurred by those who give scandal of whatever kind. ‘Whosoever shall scandalize one of these little ones who believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.’
Then our Lord takes up some words which He had before used in the Sermon on the Mount, where He had been explaining the Christian meaning of the commandment which forbade adultery, and had added the strongest denunciation of the danger of admitting anything that might incline us to sin, doubtless with a special view to the extreme subtlety and malignity of dangers to purity.
Here He speaks most generally, and the direct purpose of the words is changed from the subject of giving scandal to others who are little ones, to that of taking scandal or falling ourselves, in consequence of any softness in ridding ourselves of the occasion of evil.
‘And if thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into Hell, into unquenchable fire, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished. And if thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off.
‘It is better for thee to enter lame into life everlasting, than having two feet to be cast into the Hell of unquenchable fire, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not extinguished.
‘And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee with one eye to enter into the Kingdom of God, than having two eyes to be cast into the Hell of fire, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not extinguished.
‘Every one shall be salted with fire, and every victim shall be salted with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt become unsavoury, wherewith will you season it? Have salt in you, and have peace among you.’
Transition in the discourse
We may repeat on this passage, in the first place, that there is a transition in the words of our Lord from the subject of the giving of scandal to little ones, of whatever kind or degree, to that of taking scandal, or rather of allowing anything in our own lives and habits which may be to us an occasion of falling.
There can be little doubt that this is the meaning of our Lord in the passage in the Sermon on the Mount, from which the words about the hand and foot and eye are taken. He may not have precisely the same object in this passage. For He may be speaking of the things which are dangers to the servants of God in the discharge of their ministerial functions, such as temptations to ambition and the love of pre-eminence, rather than of the things which, in ordinary life, are the occasions of falls in the matter of purity.
But it is at least clear that He speaks of occasions of falls to ourselves, rather than of occasions of scandal to others which may be found in our conduct. For the range of danger in the matter of scandal is very large and has many sides, and our Lord might not wish to let any occasion pass of inculcating the truth on this most momentous point.
And, moreover, the things in which we are likely to give scandal to others are those as to which we yield too softly to temptations which beset ourselves, and lead us to indulge uncautiously some passion, or predilection, or ambition, or aversion, in short, some phase or form of self-love and self-seeking.
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The Greater in the Kingdom
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I think of Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face who emphasized her smallness in her "Little Way". St Therese Ora pro nobis!...........................Thanks!