The OP,
Should we avoid people because of certain flaws they may have? What if someone likes to go to a casino occasionally, smoke cigarettes, and have a few beers? Should this person be avoided? What if someone takes pride in their race or is somewhat [conceited]? Should we avoid them too?
To what extent should we reject people?
Was well-addressed by a following post (last one on first page),
I agree they need our prayers and sometimes we may be the good influence they need. But we need to guard our own spiritual lives first; don`t keep company with those who you may instinctivly know might very lead YOU to sin.
And that pretty well nails it. But there are no examples. Some of the
following posts gave some examples.
I think a lot depends on the individual. For someone with a weakness for
gambling, keeping friends with habitual gamblers can be problematic. Etc.
I know an example that is not here yet. A certain person liked to complain
how he had made friends with various other people, only to find at a later
time that suddenly they stopped answering his calls, and would leave the
room when they saw he was present. They mysteriously started avoiding
him. And he finally came to the conclusion that a particular priest was
advising them to shun him because that priest was also his own confessor,
who knew his sins, and was using that knowledge to warn others away from
his company. This could be done without breaking the seal of confession.
But what the man failed to recognize is that it does not have to be a
personal thing. The priest could well be advising these people to keep their
distance based on the man's own behavior. Regardless of his personal
confessions, if he continuously behaves in a way that is sinful, that is, keeps
pestering his friends with salacious and impure thoughts by way of jokes,
stories, paying attention to news that is in regards to impurity or sins
against the 6th and 9th Commandments, even though he ought to know
better, and when these friends have given him repeated opportunities to
change his ways, but he persists anyway, for whatever reason, it is only
reasonable that if these friends feel they are personally tempted toward
impure thoughts by being in the company of this man, then they are obliged
to break off contact with him.
The responsibility for his losing friends falls on his own shoulders, because
he keeps returning to his sin. And he is looking for someone who can give
him justification to do so, by their willingness to do it as well.
Examples: He likes to go to bars and try to pick up women.
He likes to go to TOPLESS bars and try to make "dates" with the girls who
work there.
He likes to buy sleazy tabloids and keep track of the latest gossip in show biz.
He likes to talk to strangers about what certain movie stars are up to, and
if he is not up to speed with the latest paparazzi news, he will be unable to
strike up such a conversation with a stranger standing in line for an R-rated
movie.
He cannot look at a computer screen with a browser running live on the
Internet without clicking on every image of a female face or other part of
the anatomy.
He had to wipe and reaload his operating system because of all the viruses
and malware on it that had become embedded on his hard drive.
But a mere 6 months later he had to call in the Geek Squad to do a major
diagnostic and repair AGAIN, because the malware problem had returned,
but he refuses to change his behavior, to stop clicking on the pictures of
pretty girls, because he believes it is "normal" to do so -- Why would they
have those images there if we were not supposed to click on them????
And when someone tells him he is not avoiding the near occasion of sin by
doing these things, he defends himself by saying that it is only "normal" and
that he is not "superhuman" or an "android - so don't preach to me!!"
Out of Christian pity, others are moved to try to help him cut loose from
these demons that haunt him, but try as they may, he prefers the sin to
really getting rid of the sin. At some point, he knows that he cannot tell
certain people too much of what really happened because then they will
point out how he made a conscious choice at one point, and he should
have known better. He doesn't want to hear it.
So the priest is doing a good thing by counseling his faithful to stay away
from someone who is like that.
And the man should not hold it against the priest but should be taking his
own blame for being responsible for his own sins and for not doing what he
really needs to do to stop his sinful habits. Only he can do that. When
other people try to help him, he thinks it is his challenge to corrupt them
too, so that then he can be justified in his own pertinacity.
Topic: Should we avoid certain people? (Read 2639 times)