The obligation to avoid near occasions of sin can be traced back to the evangelical counsel formulated in the first Epistle of Saint Peter warning to "keep watch" as "the devil goes about seeking whom he may devour." (1 Pet. 5.8)
On the opposite side, another spiritual tradition of confronting the devil's temptation can be traced back to Jesus going to the desert "to be tempted" (Luke 4:1–13; Matthew 4:1–11). The cenobitic tradition of the Desert Fathers lived out this spiritual warfare by voluntarily facing temptations. "Tempting the devil" went as far as to develop the practise of syneisaktism for which Robert of Arbrissel, itinerant preacher, and founder of Fontevraud Abbey in the 11th century, was most notorious. The council of Poitiers in November 1100, which two legates of Pope Paschal II had convened earlier that same year, condemned this practise.
Beyond detailing the importance of the cardinal virtue of prudence in his Summa Theologiae, Saint Thomas Aquinas has been seen as a model in fleeing the near occasions of sin since the 13th century. For the famous episode of him fleeing the women sent to him by his brothers and given a chastity chord by angels, he was said to have fled these worldly temptations, "fuggendo le occasioni", like men run away from serpents and scorpions.[4]
The formula of "avoiding occasions of sin" is first found in Latin in the writings of Bernardino of Siena for whom it is the best of all counsels, and as it were "the foundation of religion":
“Inter consilia Christi unum celeberrimum, et quasi religionis fundamentum est, fugere peccatorum occasiones.”[5]
Saint Bernardino of Siena
In the 14th century, Matthew of Kraków makes it clear that a confession is fully made only when the occasions and causes of sins are also mentioned:
“Similiter de plenitudine confessionis est dicere non solum circumstantias praedictas vel similes, sed etiam occasiones et causas peccatorum, propter quas incurristi ipsa peccata; videlicet quia neglexisti ea vitare, sicut potuisti et scivisti..”
The development of Christian hamartiology and the necessity to commit to avoidance of near occasions of sin is illustrated in Christian iconography around the 15th century, by the legend surrounding the Cristo de la Mano Tendida ("Christ with an extended hand") in the parrochial church of San Xoán de Furelos on the Camino de Santiago. These crucifixes represent Christ on the Cross from which one hand is set free to reach out to the faithful praying. According to local traditions, in 1512, a penant who was refused absolution for his sin after being incapable of avoiding near occasions of sin saw Christ on the Crucifix extend a helpful hand to him in sign of his mercy.[7]
Alphonsus Liguori, as he expanded on the moral aspects of confessions in the 18th century, is the one who provided the universal Church with the most systematic doctrine of the proximate occasion of sin.[8]
The doctrine of occasion of sin tended to rigidify and in reaction, certain theologians tried to offer of more open-minded approach to the doctrine through a
return to early Christianity. Thus, in 1948, Jesuist Cardinal Jean Danielou, quoting Origen, asserted that not every occasion of sin necessarily results in sin.[9] However, the latter "died in disgrace. In 1974, at age sixty-nine, [he was] found dead in the home of a Parisian prostitute." Though explanations and excuses were provided, others believed his presence in a brothel to be a proximate occasion of sin which should have been avoided.[10]
The doctrine of occasions of sin was still expanded upon by some preachers in the wake of the
sacrament of reconciliation, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, to explain the structures of sin, which are a further development of the doctrine of the near occasions of sin.[13] According to the official Vatican website, near occasions of sin are to be rejected before receiving absolution in one of the forms of the act of contrition. In 2018, Bishop Thomas Joseph Tobin caused a mediatic roar by leaving Twitter and calling it an "occasion of sin",[14] even though, according to the Catholic prelate, "the secular world might not be familiar with the concept".[15]
Definition
The occasion of sin can be proximate or remote, exterior or interior, voluntary or necessary.