Question II: On the malice of mockery

MOCKERY (irrisio) is a vice of the tongue, which tends to the neighbor's blushing, and consequently deprives the neighbor of peace and serenity of conscience. Thus St. Thomas, art. 1.; Cajetan, and commonly the Thomists, and other interpreters: St. Bonaventure, l. 3. Pharetrae cap. 3. §. de derisione, where he adduces the charming saying of St. Gregory, l. 25. Moral. cap. 8.: It must be feared, lest when we ourselves fall, he rise again whom we mocked while we stood, though he now knows not how to stand who knew how to mock one standing. Where he seems to indicate that to mock gravely is a mortal sin.

He PROVES it in the Bible of the Poor, cap. 70., from punishments. For thus Judges 8.: the men of Sochoth mocked Gedeon, and were condemned to a hard death. Michol, 2 Kings 6., because she mocked David, was made barren by God. The children who mocked Eliseus, 4 Kings 2., were by God's command torn by bears.

But the holy Doctor ADMONSISHES in the Speculum animae, cap. 1. §. second branch of pride, and cap. 4. §. ex contemptu proximi that mockeries, ironies, and scoffings mostly arise from pride and contempt, and are mortal against charity; but with contempt excluded, it will not be mortal, because mockery is opposed to defects in the manner of light ones, so that it suffuses [the victim] with blushing. Thus also St. Thomas, art. 2., where Cajetan, Soto, l. 5. quaest. 11. art. 1.; Filliucius, Tract. 40. cap. 5. num. 143.; Valencia, quaest. 18. p. 2.; Sayrus, l. 12. cap. 5.; Fagundez, l. 8. cap. 12. num. 11.; Tanner, disp. 4. quaest. 8. num 159.

IF, however, you judge that he will be most gravely moved, it will be mortal, thus Soto, loc. cit. art. 2. concl. 2.; Filliucius, loc. cit.; St. Thomas with Cajetan and the others above.

LIKEWISE, if someone should mark out a fool by irony or mockery, then he would sin more gravely than if he hurled an insult. The reason is, because it adds contempt, as St. Thomas argues.

But St. Bonaventure WARNS, cap. 1. of the Speculum, loc. cit., that subsannatio is by gesture, but irrisio by voice. Thus also Tanner with St. Thomas, quaest. 75. art. 1.

But the mocking of Parents is a grave sin, whence Genesis 7.[9:25]: Chanaan was cursed, as St. Thomas, Cajetan, and Soto note. Therefore Proverbs 30.: The eye that mocks a father, and despises the bearing of his mother, let the ravens of the torrents pick it out, and the sons of the eagle eat it.

Tanner, in 4., and Valencia ADD that sometimes it is not a sin, if done for correction, or for suitable recreation, but they enjoin diligent caution.