The Betrayal of Charity: The Sins that Sabotage Divine Love

8--Scandal, Scapegoats, and Spiritual Downfall

127 CHAPTER 8 Scandal, Scapegoats, and Spiritual Downfall According to Thomas Aquinas, scandal contradicts charity’s outward act of beneficence. The beneficent person does good to his or her friends; charity extends this friendship to all humans. In this regard, Aquinas cites the words of Paul: “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10).1 We must pray for all people and be prepared to do good to all, while first doing good to those closest to us (for example, our parents and our children, who have most claim upon us).2 Those closest to us do not have an exclusive claim to our beneficence: as Aquinas says, “one ought, for instance, to succor a stranger, in extreme necessity, rather than one’s own father, if he is not in such urgent need.”3 Causing scandal is the opposite of doing “good to all men.” But since there are many ways that we can harm others, in what does the vice of scandal specifically consist? This chapter compares Aquinas’ view with that of René Girard. Although Girard does not write as a theologian, Girard and Aquinas both interpret scandal in light of Scripture and the life of charity. Their distinct approaches provide ample material not only for more profoundly conceiving of scandal, but also—by God’s grace—for avoiding it. 128 — The Betrayal of Charity René Girard on Scandal Treating two early works by René Girard, Violence and the Sacred and Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, Hans Urs von Balthasar identifies Girard’s approach as a high point, even if a somewhat problematic one,“in the field of soteriology and in theology generally.”4 Indebted to Nietzsche but taking the side of Christ, Girard argues that Christ unveils a mechanism behind all human violence.5 This mechanism is that of the sacrificial scapegoat, which Girard envisions as constituting the basis of all human institutions . For Girard, human desire is imitative, focusing on what others desire, and so rivalries (power struggles) are endemic to human life. These rivalries threaten to destroy the possibility of human community, and “the accumulated tension can only be dispersed by being discharged, quasi-fortuitously, onto a victim common to both sides, a ‘scapegoat.’”6 By destroying the scapegoat, the rivals cathartically release the pent-up violence and regain, at least for a short period, the ability to live together in peace. The scapegoat or sacrificial victim thus is at the same time accursed (bearing sin) and sacred (establishing peace).The “gods” are invented by humans in the image of this violence. The gods thirst for bloody sacrifice and in return deliver peace to human communities. According to Girard, civilization is built upon the scapegoat-sacrifice, although at the same time civilized institutions seek to veil and to moderate the rivalries that produce the scapegoat-sacrifice. Girard conceives of the Old Testament as being in the process of unveiling the sacrificial mechanism. The Old Testament takes the side of Abel, the scapegoat, rather than the side of Cain; this is particularly important because Cain is the founder of cities and of culture. For Girard, the prophets likewise undermine the mechanism of sacrificial worship and take the side of the victims. Jesus then fulfills the prophets by entering into the scapegoatsacrifice role and unmasking it: violent action, and above all the ritual victimizing that Jesus endures, is shown to be radically sinful. The kingdom that Jesus inaugurates is unique in being grounded upon love and reconciliation rather than violence and victimization . However, the history of the church, for Girard, manifests a Scandal, Scapegoats, and Spiritual Downfall — 129 return to the scapegoat-sacrifice in various ways (even within the New Testament, where Hebrews envisions Jesus’ death in sacrificial terms). But now that sacrifice has been unmasked by God in Jesus, its horrific violence can no longer be hidden and so civilization can no longer be built upon it. In his I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, Girard explains,“What Jesus invites us to imitate is his own desire, the spirit that directs him toward the goal on which his intention is fixed: to resemble God the Father as much as possible.”7 In the Gospels, Girard argues, our violent mimetic rivalry is described by “the noun skandalon and the verb skandalizein.”8 According to Girard...