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| Mary, Mother, meek and mild-Blessed was she in her Child. |
The conscience is subject to two special infirmities which warp its judgment, and mislead us in action, and may be productive of great evils. One of these is scrupulousness. The word scruple connotes a petty and continual annoyance. A scruple is an exaggeration of conscientiousness; not that this can go too far; but it is the conscientious temper acting on a false judgment and an insufficient grasp of truth. It is the habit of timidity which thinks there is sin where there is no sin. It gives rise to hesitation before action and unprofitable self-searchings after it. It may proceed from a fervour which has not yet arrived at ripeness of experience, or from a secret pride, or from imprudence in following views that are accounted safer because they are more narrow and more rigorous. Scruples may be a result of our personal character, or may be permitted by God as a temptation to be resisted, or as a trial for our humiliation. They may injure us by causing discouragement and weariness of religious living; but judiciously treated they will conduce to our advantage. Remember that there is no sin except by a conscious act of the will, that God does not lay traps for you or rejoice in your destruction, that He does not expect absolute perfection from you in this life, that He is generous beyond possible conception in making allowance for your natural infirmities, and that the more miserable you are, the more His tenderness abounds. Thank your Lord for all this, and cast yourself upon Him with complete abandonment.
