Clerical Dress as Conscience

Father Brown Series on PBS by the BBC
loosely based on
G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown Mysteries

Here is a short reflection I wrote on Tuesday, May 28th, 1996 just days before my June 2nd diaconal ordination, on how "the habit helps the monk," serving as a sort of external conscience.

It helps to keep one good, enforces one's conscience. But should it?...to avoid scandal one refrains from doing something that is sinful whereas without the added element of scandal one would commit the sin? e.g. if one were at a movie with illicit material in it, is it better to be without the collar?

In point of fact the first scandal is to oneself! By consenting to sin (regardless of others) one is already leading oneself--in effect--into sin. The first scandal is to one's own conscience. If you will, the first, and most serious scandal is giving a bad example to one's own conscience as if it were another person. For, consenting to sin one thereby betrays one's conscience. It is an offense against one's self, by one's self. But the self thereby offended is also weakened by the same act and with repetition of the same offense may eventually concede and suggest it on other occasions. Then the scandal to oneself has taken its effect in causing also one's deepest self to err => leaving no check on oneself from within: only external checks are possible then: 1. One's Guardian Angel vs. Evil Angels. 2. God. 3. Others.

P.S. This reminds me of something I learned while in Rome in my study and reflection on the history of the popes. The "bad" popes were typically most scandalous before becoming pope or even priest (e.g. fathering children as cardinals without yet even being in sacris, they were simply and literally princes of the realm), because the faithful would not tolerate such deviance from the Catholic course by their shepherds! The sensus fidei of the people is a check on the conscience, even of popes! So, wear the clerics, as the popes do, in order to be held to the standard of the saints which is Christ, Our Blessed Lord, Himself. Deo gratias!