| II Maccabees 6:21
| But they that stood by, being moved with wicked pity, for the old friendship they had with the man, taking him aside, desired that flesh might be brought, which it was lawful for him to eat, that he might make as if he had eaten, as the king had commanded, of the flesh of the sacrifice:
| Wicked pity. Their pity was wicked, in as much as it suggested that wicked proposal of saving his life by dissimulation. (Challoner) --- To feign or make outward shew of consenting to a false religion, is never lawful. (Worthington) --- Greek, "They were set over that wicked feast or sacrifice," splagchnismo, (Haydock) in which the entrails were eaten. (Calmet) --- In this sense the term is used [in] ver. 7 and 8 by the Vulgate. Here Pity is preferred, as the man seemed to be actuated by it. (Haydock) --- This generous martyr would not scandalize the weak, by doing a thing in itself lawful, which would have been deemed a prevarication. He was guided by those excellent maxims which Christ, St. Paul, and St. Saba (Mart. Ap. xii.) have inculcated and practised, Matthew 18:7., and Romans 14:14., and 1 Corinthians 8:4, 10. (Calmet)
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