The Occasion of Sin

[Sky Dancer]

When I was a kid growing up in the RCC, they had this term, "occasion of sin". It referred to someone or something that causes you to sin.

Girls were called the "occasion of sin" for boys. The mere presence of a girl might arouse lust in a boy.

Certain people are "occasions of sin" for me. I'm currently avoiding them because they push my buttons and that make me angry. The guy across the street from me is an example. I give him a wide berth.

 

[Sky Dancer]

The Flame Zone is another example. I'm avoiding it.

 

[Sky Dancer]

In Roman Catholic teaching, an occasion of sin is an external set of circumstances—whether of things or persons—which either because of their special nature or because of the frailty common to humanity or peculiar to some individual, incite or entice one to sin.

There are both proximate and remote occasions, where a proximate occasion is one in which men of like calibre for the most part fall into mortal sin, or one in which experience points to the same result from the special weakness of a particular person. The remote occasion lacks these elements. All theologians are agreed that there is no obligation to avoid the remote occasions of sin both because this would, practically speaking, be impossible and because they do not involve serious danger of sin.

The proximate occasion may be necessary, that is, such as a person cannot abandon or get rid of. Whether this impossibility be physical or moral does not matter for the determination of the principles hereinafter to be laid down. A proximate occasion may be deemed necessary when it cannot be given up without grave scandal or loss of good name or without notable temporal or spiritual damage.

It may be voluntary, within the competency of one to remove. Moralists distinguish between a proximate occasion which is continuous and one which, whilst it is unquestionably proximate, yet confronts a person only at intervals. Someone who is in the presence of a proximate occasion at once voluntary and continuous is bound to remove it.

Occasion of sin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia