On this hear St. John Chrysostom, one of the most illustrious Fathers of the Church: “When you have made another sin in his heart, how can you be innocent? Tell me, whom does this world condemn? Whom do judges in court punish? Those who drink poison or those who prepare it and administer the fatal potion? You have prepared the abominable cup, you have given the death-dealing drink, and you are more criminal than are those who poison the body; you murder not the body, but the soul. And it is not to enemies you do this, nor are you urged on by any imaginary necessity, nor provoked by injury, but out of foolish vanity and pride”. An Out of Place Objection Sometimes you will run into people who contend that in former times an immodestly dressed woman was an occasion of sin for men because it was a rare sight (such as the prostitute mentioned above). But nowadays, if virtually all women are dressed immodestly, men will be so accustomed to it that it is no longer an occasion of sin: ab assuetis non fit passio - the passions are not aroused by things we are accustomed to. How are we to answer this objection? Pope Pius XII called this objection both insidious and out of place.24 While it is true that customary sights may not always arouse an immediate temptation, they do register in one’s consciousness. A man walking down the street who encounters ten women in miniskirts will not be tempted to stop and stare at each one, perhaps not at any. But he has seen them and they remain in his memory. The picture of them may fade from the mind, but suddenly, that evening, or days or even years later, it will emerge from the attic of the mind and may bring on a violent attack against holy purity. Concupiscence often lies dormant, but it never dies in a normal man. Nine successive looks at a half-dressed woman may fail to arouse concupiscence of the flesh, but the tenth may prove fatal to the soul. Never forget that, Amanda; and it does not matter how old or how holy a man is. Nor does it matter how holy she might be. Tertullian has a word of caution for such women: “A holy woman may be beautiful by the gift of nature, but she must not give occasion to lust. If beauty be hers, so far from setting it off, she ought rather to obscure it.” By those words, he did not mean to say disfigure it, but conceal it by modest clothing and veiling. I have already mentioned the example of King David. Another case in point is that of St Benedict. St Gregory tells us that when he was living alone as a 59
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