[1] The Fruits of Stumbling
[1] The Fruits of Stumbling
From the questions that are answered in the Friday meeting at the Cathedral, and which are sent to the magazine.
Question
I caused some people to stumble, and they fell into sin because of me. Then I repented, but they are still falling. I still see the fruits of my stumbling in people’s lives. Will my repentance be forgiven?
Answer
It is a difficult and touching question. A person has repented, but those who sinned because of him have not repented. Does he still bear responsibility for their sin?
This question shows us the length of sin, its depth, and its temporal and personal extent. A person has left the sin, but his sin is still working in others, and he sees it before him at all times. He suffers because of it and feels the extent of his responsibility for it, for he is the cause. So what should he do?
It may be possible for him to exert all his effort so that those whom he caused to stumble may repent. But what if they do not repent?
He may have power over himself, but what can he do with others? No doubt such a person will live sad and in pain for a long time. His repentance does not make him rejoice as much as the results of his sin in others cause him pain, especially if those others perish.
Perhaps the phrase “a life shall be taken for a life” stands before him, and he cries out to God saying, “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation” (Ps. 51:14).
He may try to do what he can for their salvation. But perhaps he cannot; perhaps returning to contact them may cause danger to him, and it may be good for him to stay away lest he also perish.
Perhaps those whom he caused to stumble have themselves caused many others to stumble, and the circle has widened, and there has become an indirect stumbling beside the direct stumbling… Is it not true that we cannot confine the extent of our sins and the measure of their spread?
The first advice that I can direct to the questioner is that he should be contrite and humble before God, praying for these souls so that God may send them help for their salvation.
Let him dedicate for them fasts, liturgies, and prostrations, and let him weep for them with abundant tears. Let him remember the Lord’s saying: “Woe to that man by whom the stumbling comes.” Let him ask repentance for all of them, and work for them even in an indirect way, and commend them to spiritual guides and fathers of confession.
As for him—since he has repented—he will not perish because of them. Our example in this is Saint Mary the Copt.
In her first life before repentance, she caused thousands to stumble and made them fall, and perhaps they may have perished because of her. But through her sincere repentance she became a great saint, and her past sins were forgiven.
We should not forget also that those who fell into the stumbling had their own sinful will participating in that fall. Therefore, not all the responsibility is on the one who caused them to stumble.
It is enough that they responded to the stumbling and accepted it… Yet despite this he may say to himself: truly they were weak and fell, but I presented material for their weakness, and I did not have mercy on their weakness. My duty was to protect them and strengthen them, not to cause their fall. Perhaps if it were not for me they would not have fallen…
He is like the driver of a vehicle who struck a person and caused him a permanent disability. Then he repented and God forgave him. But whenever he sees his victim in his disability, he becomes sad.
This sadness undoubtedly helps in the acceptance of his repentance.
Marriage with Demons
Question
Is it true what is said that some people are companions of demons—that is, that a person marries a spirit from the evil spirits and has children from it?
Answer
This talk is unreasonable. Demons are spirits and have no bodies, and therefore there is no element of reproduction or fertilization. A sexual process cannot take place between a body and a spirit.
However, the source of this idea may be an error in interpreting the Scripture concerning the evil before the Flood: “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose… And afterward also, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them, these were the mighty men…” (Gen. 6:2,4).
The sons of God were Seth and his son Enosh, when the name of the Lord was called upon (Gen. 4:26).
And the daughters of men were the daughters of Cain and his descendants.
But some people—including Jehovah’s Witnesses and others—thought that the sons of God were the angels, of course the angels who fell, that is, the demons.
This opinion is certainly wrong, because angels neither marry nor are given in marriage as the Scripture says (Matt. 22:30).
Angels do not have bodies that reproduce, nor are they distinguished by gender.
But the devil may appear in the form of a man or in the form of a woman, and may take a name for himself, and may stir a person toward the lust of fornication, but he does not have a body and does not reproduce.
They are myths, like the stories of the common people, from imagination.
For better translation support, please contact the center.
