(b) When the derider makes light of an evil that is really light, there is no contempt shown, but there may be serious embarrassment caused to the person derided. For the peace of a good conscience is a great blessing (“Our glory is this, the testimony of our conscience,” II Cor., i. 12; “A secure mind is like a continual feast,” Prov., xv. 15), and that which disturbs it can be a serious distress and harm. If the butt of the joke does not take the matter much to heart, the sin is venial. But should he suffer great mental pain or disturbance on account of the ridicule, the quality of the sin is disputed. Some think that mortal sin is committed, if the derider foresees the serious evil that will ensue; but others hold that the sin is venial, since it is the over-sensitiveness of the person derided that accounts for his great discomfiture of mind.
2110. The gravity of the sin of derision is increased by the object against whom it is directed; for the greater the reverence due a person, the greater the injury shown by making a mockery of him.
(a) Thus, the worst form of derision is that which is directed against God, and it is not distinct from blasphemy. Hence, Isaias (IV Kings, xix. 6) calls the deriders of the God of Israel blasphemers, and St. Luke (xxii. 64, 65) says that the soldiers who gave Our Lord a mock coronation spoke in blasphemy.
(b) Next in gravity is derision of parents, and Scripture declares the special horror of this sin: “The eye that mocketh at his father, let the ravens of the brooks pick it out and the young eagles eat it” (Prov., xxx, 17).
(c) Finally, there is a special enormity in derision of saintly persons, for virtue deserves honor, and those who dishonor it deter men, as far as in them lies, from cultivating or esteeming it.
2111. Cursing.—Cursing in general is the speaking of evil for some person or thing, that is, in order that the evil spoken may befall him or it. Thus, it differs from contumely and derision, which are the speaking of evil to another, and from defamation and whispering, which are the speaking of evil against another. Cursing is also different from prediction of evil, and some passages in the Imprecatory Psalms, though couched in terms of malediction, are prophecies of the future, rather than curses. An example is Psalm cviii, which foretells the fate of the traitor Judas. Cursing is expressed in two ways:
(a) imperatively, when one pronounces with authority that punishment is to be inflicted or evil visited upon some person or object. In this way God decrees eternal or temporal penalties against sinners, judges sentence criminals, and the Church anathematize the contumacious;
(b) optatively, when one who has not the power or authority to command punishment, expresses the wish that misfortune or evil of some kind may overtake a person or thing. Examples are: “Bad luck to you,” “May you break your leg,” “The devil take you,” “God damn you.” A curse made in the form of a prayer is called an imprecation.
2112. When Cursing Is Not Sinful.—Cursing a person is not sinful when the evil which is ordered or wished is not intended as to the evil that is in it, but as to some good; for so the intention is directed to good, not to evil.
(a) Thus, evil may be ordered on account of the good of justice that is in it, as when a judge decrees capital punishment, which in its physical being is an evil, but morally is the vindication of justice and therefore a good. Some of the curses made by holy men in the Bible are of this character: they proclaim the just sentence of God, as when Elias called down fire from heaven upon his persecutors (IV Kings, i), and Eliseus cursed the boys that mocked him (IV Kings, ii. 24); or they express the submission of the human will to the just decree of God: “And the Levites shall pronounce with a loud voice, ‘Cursed be he that abideth not in the words of this law,’ and all the people shall say, ‘Amen’” (Deut., xxvii. 14, 26).