WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE SINS OF BIBLICAL HEROES

 

Often these days the sins of prominent clergy are made known publicly.  Men who were thought to be true and holy are revealed as false and corrupt.  For the cause of reform and healing for victims it is good that these things be brought into the light of public scrutiny.  Such scandals, however, cause great pain in those who love and believe in the Church, and worse, leads some to question the credibility of the Church’s teaching and her Sacraments.  These I would hope to help by pointing to the sins of Biblical heroes.  They reveal that human weakness is not to be unexpected, even in servants of God.  Here are some examples:

Noah enjoyed the fruits of the newly recovered earth after the Flood a little too much, got drunk, passed out and exposed himself naked in his tent, to the shame of his sons.          

Out of fear Abraham lied about his relationship with his wife Sarah twice, and doubted that God would fulfill his promise of a son by her.

Moses lost patience with the Israelites and dishonored God by crediting a miracle to himself and his brother Aaron rather than to God.

David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband murdered to cover it up.  He also disobeyed God by taking a census of Israel, which had tragic results for the population.

Peter tried to turn Jesus away from embracing his Passion.  After Pentecost, as leader of the Church in Antioch, he was remonstrated by Paul for treating Gentile converts differently from Jewish converts.

Thomas doubted the Resurrection of Jesus.

Paul and Barnabas split up after a heated argument because Paul was unwilling to allow Mark, a cousin of Barnabas, to join them on a second missionary journey since he had abandoned them half way through the first one.   

Why would the Holy Spirit, who inspired Sacred Scripture, make the weaknesses of God’s servants known?  Because the Scriptures are not fables but recount salvation history.  This history is not a perfect trajectory because human beings are major players in it.  The salvation of the human race is a divine and human project.  The realistic approach which the various books of the Bible take to this history is a sign of their authenticity, for the authors do not attempt to hide the shortcomings of their heroes.  Scripture makes it clear that God, by his Divine Providence, uses imperfect human beings to accomplish great things.

Only the Founder of our faith and his Blessed Mother were absolutely perfect.  Everyone else falls short.  The existence of concupiscence – the inclination to sin with which we are born – does not excuse bad behavior, but it explains the reason for its possibility even in those whom God has consecrated for His purposes, in biblical times and in all ages.  They are not robots.  Like every human being, they are endowed with free will and require continual conversion. 

Surely, we should be scandalized by moral failure in Church leaders, and it is proper to hold them to account.  We have a right to expect that they live the exhortation they heard from the bishop when he handed them the Book of the Gospels on the day of their ordination: “Believe what you read.  Teach what you believe.  Practice what you teach.”  But the Gospels and the rest of the Bible signal that there will be scandals.  The biggest one was Judas Iscariot.  This honest acknowledgement is meant to keep us from losing faith when scandals happen.  Our trust is in the Lord, not in human beings, and the unworthiness of his ministers does not negate the efficacy of the grace for salvation which God continues to communicate through his Church.

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saint Paul recommends that evil be made known: “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.  For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret; but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light” (Ephesians 5:11-13).  When he learns of sexual immorality being tolerated in one of the churches, he urges that the transgressor be excommunicated for the sake of integrity and truth, and in hope that the guilty man might turn and be saved (cf. 1 Corinthians 5).