Scholion. On Derision

(St. Thomas, II-II, q. 75.)

I. Notion. Derision occurs when someone, by jesting, objects something vicious to another, for this end, that he blush or be confounded; by jesting, i.e. by turning someone's defect into laughter.

Derision differs from insult, detraction, and whispering, because derision intends someone's blushing; insult, the injury of honor; detraction, the injury of reputation; whispering, the dissolution of friendship.

"Sins of words," says St. Thomas, "are principally to be weighed according to the intention of the one uttering them; and therefore sins of this sort are distinguished according to the diverse things which someone intends when speaking against another. For just as someone by abusing intends to depress the honor of the one abused, and by detracting to diminish reputation, and by whispering to take away friendship, so also by mocking someone intends that he who is mocked should blush; and because this end is distinct from the others, therefore also the sin of derision is distinguished from the aforementioned sins" (II-II, q. 75, a. 1).

II. Modes of deriding. Derision can be done: 1° by the mouth, namely by words and laughter, and it is called mockery; 2° by wrinkling the nose, sticking out the tongue, etc., and it is called scoffing; 3° by deeds, for example by bending the knee, etc., and it is called ridicule. But the aforesaid modes, as is clear, do not differ in species.

III. Morality. 1. Derision is a grave sin when someone's defect grave in itself is turned into laughter; for true or grave contempt is had in this, that someone is so little esteemed and held so base that his grave defects are turned into sport, as if they were the defects of a child or a fool (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 75, a. 2). But if a defect slight in itself is turned into laughter, there is not true or grave contempt, and therefore only a slight sin.

2. Derision "is a sin so much the graver, as greater reverence is owed to the person who is mocked" (St. Thomas, loc. cit.).

"Whence it is most grave to mock God and the things which are God's, according to that saying of Isaiah 37: Whom have you reproached? and whom have you blasphemed? and against whom have you exalted your voice? and afterwards it is added: Against the Holy One of Israel. Next place is held by mockery of parents; whence it is said in Proverbs 30: The eye that mocks his father and despises the birth of his mother, let the ravens of the torrents pluck it out and the young of the eagle eat it. Next, the derision of the just is grave; because honor is the reward of virtue, and against this it is said in Job 12: The simplicity of the just is derided; and this derision indeed is very harmful, because through this men are impeded from doing well" (St. Thomas, loc. cit.).

3. Derision is free from fault: 1° if it is done so that the one derided may recover from sin; 2° if friends, without danger of offense, for the sake of recreation, jokingly object certain slight things to one another.