- Feb 5, 2002
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Scrupulosity is common among young people today due to a disconnect between the ideal of sanctity and the reality of the life of virtue.
It appears that my generation is experiencing an epidemic of scrupulosity. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, scrupulosity is a form of OCD that is primarily religious. Similar to normal OCD, there are obsessions and compulsions. But with scrupulosity, the obsessions and compulsions are religious.
Unlike OCD, scrupulosity involves an intense moralism tied to those actions. Not only does one need to act but if they do not act then they feel as though they have sinned. They need to pray their Rosary once a day, or they have sinned. They need to kiss their Bible before and after reading, or else they have sinned. They need to bow their heads whenever they hear the Lord’s name, or else they have sinned.
The idea of a loving and forgiving God is foreign to the experience of the scrupulous. God may be all-loving, but if I don’t do these things, then He’ll condemn me. God is less an all-loving Father and more of an exacting tyrant who must be obeyed.
None of this is to blame the actions of the Rosary, kissing the Bible, or bowing your head at the sound of the Lord’s name. Those actions are good and holy and purveyors of merit; but the scrupulous person finds himself weighed down by these things instead of brought up into the love of God—that love which is the end of all these actions.
Continued below.
crisismagazine.com
It appears that my generation is experiencing an epidemic of scrupulosity. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, scrupulosity is a form of OCD that is primarily religious. Similar to normal OCD, there are obsessions and compulsions. But with scrupulosity, the obsessions and compulsions are religious.
Unlike OCD, scrupulosity involves an intense moralism tied to those actions. Not only does one need to act but if they do not act then they feel as though they have sinned. They need to pray their Rosary once a day, or they have sinned. They need to kiss their Bible before and after reading, or else they have sinned. They need to bow their heads whenever they hear the Lord’s name, or else they have sinned.
The idea of a loving and forgiving God is foreign to the experience of the scrupulous. God may be all-loving, but if I don’t do these things, then He’ll condemn me. God is less an all-loving Father and more of an exacting tyrant who must be obeyed.
None of this is to blame the actions of the Rosary, kissing the Bible, or bowing your head at the sound of the Lord’s name. Those actions are good and holy and purveyors of merit; but the scrupulous person finds himself weighed down by these things instead of brought up into the love of God—that love which is the end of all these actions.
Continued below.
The Pull of Scrupulosity
Scrupulosity is common among young people today due to a disconnect between the ideal of sanctity and the reality of the life of virtue.
crisismagazine.com
