Clergy And Scandal

Vos autem recessistis de via, et scandalizastis plurmos in lege: irritum fecistis pactum Levi, dicit Dominus exercituum. Propter quod et ego dedi vos contemptibiles, et humiles omnibus populis, sicut non servastis vias meas, et accepistis faciem in lege. LXX: Vos autem declinastis de via mea, et infirmos fecistis multos in lege, corrupistis testamentum Levi, dicit Dominus omnipotens. Et ego dedi vos contemptibils, et dissolutos in omnes gentes, pro eo quod non custodistis vias meas, sed accipiebatis personas in lege. Haec ad Christi non pertinere personam, nec ad eos qui illius cultui dedicati sunt, etiamsi ego taceam prudens lector intelligit. Et est sensus: Ego vos volui facere quae priori capitulo continentur, et de quibus per Moysen in Deuteronomio sum locutus: Date Levi doctrinam ejus, et veritatem viro justo, et reliqua: vos autem recessistis de via recta, sive declinastis, dicente me: Non declines neque ad dextram, neque ad sinistram; et infirmos fecistis multos in lege, sive scandalizastis, ut Aquila et Symmachus verterunt. Declinare ad dextram, est abstinere a cibis quos Deus creavit ad utendum: condemnare nuptias, et in illuud incurrere, quod in alio loco scriptum est: Ne sis justus multum. Ad sinistram divertere, est cum quis luxuriae se tradit et libini, et scandalizat nultos in lege: cui melius est, ut mola asinaria ligetur circa collum, et in mare praecipitetur, quam scandalizet unum de minimis. Infirmos autem faciunt multos, qui cum credentes in Christo fidei robur acceperint, infirmari eos faciunt neligentia conversationis suae, quibus rectissime dicitur: Irritum fecistis pactum Levi, pactum vitae et pacis, et caetera, quae pertinere ad officium diximus sacerdotis. Quam ob causam, et ego, inquit, dedi vos contemnerent, et pro honore et gloria, quasi dejectos humilesque calcarent: Sicut non servastis vias meas, et accepistis faciem in lege. Inter omnia peccata Levi, sive eorum qui ex Levi sunt, sacerdotum Dei, illud et ultimum et maximum ponitur, quare accipiant faciem in lege, ut non causas, sed personas considerint, justumque pauperem despicientes, iniquos divites suscipiant et honorent. As quos in octogesimo primo psalmo dicitur: Usquequo judicatis iniquitatem, et facies peccatorum sumitis? Et Paulus ad Galatas: Deus, inquit, personam hominis non accipit. Pleniusque apostolus Jacobus hoc peccatum arguit, atque condemnat. Quidquid autem priori populo dicitur, etiam nobis dictum putemus ut cautiores recedamus a vitiis, et faciem non suscipiamus in lege, nec qui sumus cultores Dei, veritati mendacium praeferamus. Sanctus Hieronymous, Commentarium In Malachiam Prophetam, Cap II Source: Migne PL 25.1557c-1558b

For you have withdrawn from the way and you have scandalised many in the Law, you have voided the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. On account of which I have made you despised, and abased you before all the people, because you have not kept my ways, and you shown partiality in the Law. The Septuagint reads: You have fallen from my way, and you have made many weak in the Law, and you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says The Lord Almighty. And I have given you over to contempt and undone you among all the peoples, because you did not guard my ways, but you showed partiality in the Law. 1 These things do not pertain to the person of Christ, nor to those who are dedicated to His reverence, which even if I were silent the sensible reader would understand. Now this is the meaning: I wished to make you as the previous chapter told, and concerning which I spoke through Moses in Deuteronomy: 'Give to Levi his teaching and truth to the righteous man.' 2 As for the rest, 'you have withdrawn from the way, or fallen away,' though I say: 'Do not decline to the right or to the left.' 3 And you have made many weak in the law, or 'you have scandalised them', as Aquila and Symmachus translate it. To decline to the right is to reject foods which God has created for us, and to condemn marriage, and to rush into that concerning which it is said in another place: 'Do not be righteous overmuch.' 4 To stray to the left is when someone gives himself to luxury and lust, and scandalises many in the Law, for which it is better that the millstone were hung about his neck and he were cast into the sea, than he scandalise one of the little ones. 5 For they make many weak who, when they beleived in Christ and received strength in the faith, were then made weak by the negligence of their way of life, to whom it is rightly said: 'You have voided the covenant of Levi.' 'The covenant of life and peace,' and the rest, 6 which we have said pertains to the duties of the priest. Because of which, he says, I have given you over to contempt and abased you before all the peoples, that they scorn you, and in place of glory and honour they trample on you as men wretched and reviled. 'Because you have not kept my ways, and you have shown partiality in the Law.' Among all the sins of Levi, that one is placed as last and greatest, because showing partiality in the Law, they judge not cases but persons, and despising the righteous poor man they receive and honour iniquitous rich men. To whom it is said in the eighty first Psalm: 'How long will you judge for iniquity, and give honour to sinners?' 7 And Paul says to the Galatians: 'God is no respecter of persons.' 8 And more than all the Apostle James accuses this sin and condemns it. 9 For whatever has been said to the people before, we should think said to us, that being more prudent we keep away from vices, and do not show partiality in the Law, lest we who revere God prefer a lie to truth. Saint Jerome, from the Commentary on The Prophet Malachi , Chapter 2 1 Malac 2.8-9 2 Deut 33.8 Sept 3 Deut 5.32 4 Eccles 7.17 5 Mt 18.6, Mk 9.42, Lk 17.1-2 6 Malac 2.5 7 Ps 88.2 8 Galat 2.6 9 James 21.13