The scrupulous person has to want to be cured – and to take the means necessary.
Editor’s Notes
This is the fifth part of a serialisation of Fr William Doyle SJ’s guide for dealing with scrupulosity.
It deals with complications that arise in the treatment of scruples – and why obstinacy can be both a feature of the scrupulous, and the main barrier for their cure.
For more on Fr Doyle and this pamphlet, see Part I.
Scruples and their Treatment
Fr William Doyle
What are scruples? Fr William Doyle SJ’s guide for the scrupulous
Fixing the distorted vision of scrupulosity – Fr William Doyle SJ
Scrupulosity, Confession and Holy Communion – Fr William Doyle SJ
A Favourite Stratagem of the Evil One
Sometimes scrupulous souls have temptations which the devil uses to trouble timorous consciences, to distract them in prayer, to keep them back at every step; above all, to crush them by the multiplicity of small worries, and so render their lives impossible. Among these temptations are thoughts of blasphemy, despising holy things, desire for the profanation of sacred objects, and even of the Sacred Host, joy in the sorrow of others, wishing the death of others, doubts against faith, evil intentions in innocent actions, evil thoughts about persons to whom one speaks, finally, temptations against the holy purity in souls that hold such things in horror.
These diabolical temptations, though harmless since there is no likelihood of their being consented to, nevertheless, hide, when frequent, a dangerous trick. For woe to the soul that sets about examining and analysing these suggestions!
That is what the devil desires. Because this imprudent examination will increase and multiply the temptations, will lead the soul into a maze of doubts and perplexities, from which every effort to extricate itself will only entangle it more hopelessly. The sacraments will become impossible, piety intolerable, and in the end conscience will become wholly unstrung, and despair will be the result.
Warned, therefore, by his confessor, of the insidiousness and danger of these temptations, yet assured of their harmlessness if rightly handled, the scrupulous penitent should put them from him at once with quiet scorn, and on no pretext whatsoever must he stop to examine them or recall them when once put away.
Four Complications of Scrupulosity
Scrupulosity may become complicated in various ways, a fact which renders cure very difficult.
The complications most often met with are the four following, each of which requires patient and careful treatment.
First Complication: Obstinacy
The first and most dangerous complication of scrupulosity is obstinacy, and the refusal to obey the confessor, above all, when this goes so far as absolutely to refuse to receive the Sacraments.
As a scrupulous soul can only be cured by obedience to his confessor, there is little hope for him, if, instead of following the director God has given him, he prefers as guides the demon of scrupulosity and the demon of disobedience, both of whom will lead him to destruction.
“Despair,” says the Holy Spirit, “of the man who is wise in his own eyes.” (Prov.)
Is there not much more reason to despair when this so-called “wise” man is the very blindest of the blind, as are scrupulous souls, and yet refuses obstinately to take the hand of the only guide who can save him from the abyss? The best advice to give such a one is to bid him meditate with faith on each of the two parts of the Gospel sentence:
“He that heareth you, heareth Me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me.” (Luke 10:16)
Can he doubt that these words spoken by our Lord to His apostles, apply to priests, heirs to their authority over the penitent?
He should also ponder on that other saying of the Saviour:
“Unless you become as little children (by your docility), you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:3)
With these poor obstinate souls, the confessor must exhaust every resource of his priestly charity, knowing there is question here of saving a soul from utter ruin. But he will be able to gain nothing with unreasonable minds in moments of excitement, which with them are really crises of madness. All that can then be obtained by zeal is that they may return in better dispositions.
Second Complication: Mortal Sins mingled with Scruples
As has been said, mortal sin may not uncommonly be found to accompany and mingle with scruples. They may mingle even in the most varied proportions. This occurs sometimes to such an extent that the confessor asks himself whether he should devote himself most to the cure of scruples or to the eradication of evil habits.
In dealing with scrupulous sinners the confessor must proceed with great caution. He will, first of all, assure himself that mortal sin has been committed, which is not lightly to be admitted in a scrupulous soul, but only after palpable and certain proof.
Next he will endeavour, as speedily as possible, to arrive at the number and species of these grave sins, so as to limit the evil, that is to say, to reduce their number and kind to a minimum, in his own mind first of all, and then in the mind of the penitent.
It is of the utmost importance that this scrupulous sinner should regard as mortal only this minimum of grave sins. To secure this the confessor will oblige him to disregard doubtful mortal sins. He will tell him there is no danger in acting thus, since even if these doubtful sins were really mortal, they would be effaced by contrition and the Sacraments. To prevent any uneasiness, the confessor should, of his own accord, assure the penitent that he regards the serious sins confessed as really mortal, but that in spite of these grave sins he maintains that his penitent is scrupulous, and that the treatment laid down is necessary.
The confessor will have less hesitation in continuing the treatment, as scrupulous sinners are, as a rule, the most timid in making use of the liberties permitted them.
Third Complication: Repetition of Explanations
If there is one class of scrupulous souls more dreaded by directors than any other it is those who are constantly going back on explanations given, or decisions received, because they appear faulty in their eyes.
A penitent who belongs to this class has one thing to recall, and one thing to do: it is his duty to obey the confessor without adding a single word, once the latter, having listened to the reasons given in favour of repetition, or even when not wishing to hear anything, maintains his previous decision.
It is God Who then declares through His minister that He takes everything on Himself. It is He Who bids the penitent to obey in silence. What, therefore, need he fear?
Fourth Complication: Incurable State
The fourth complication of scrupulosity is that which results from the advanced age or defective intelligence of the penitent, or from a persistent cowardice which shrinks from applying the treatment.
When one or the other of these obstacles is met with, the complete cure of scrupulosity is almost impossible. All that the director can do is to consider how much of the treatment can be prudently attempted.
Usually it will be best to try only to lessen the malady and prescribe palliations, above all, when it is perceived that a full and complete treatment will only upset still further a diseased mind, or an old person, whose deeply ingrained habits and notions are unalterable.
Subscribe now, so as not to miss the next part:
Scruples and their Treatment – Fr William Doyle
What are scruples? Fr William Doyle SJ’s guide for the scrupulous
Fixing the distorted vision of scrupulosity – Fr William Doyle SJ
Scrupulosity, Confession and Holy Communion – Fr William Doyle SJ
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