Chapter 2: Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess (paragraphs 5-6)
Thus in adapting to changing circumstances they should us now the encouragement of a loving parent and now the threats of a harsh disciplinarian. (From para. 5 of Ch. 2 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
I don't know of many circumstances in my life where harsh threats are appropriate. But I resonate deeply with Benedict's advice that communication with another must not be simply on my terms. Rather, I see the need to communicate as an opportunity to bring out, sometimes with kind endurance, the best in both of us. Meditation teaches me the gifts that are called for: patience, listening, discernment.
“The message we have been commanded to deliver, to repeat with all the freshness that the creative Spirit imbues us with, is of immense and contemporary urgency, most of all perhaps for the young. But it is a hard message, a hard saying, and it can barely be heard let alone accepted unless we ourselves are the living witnesses of its authenticity.” (John Main, “Community of Love p29). Any enthusiastic words I may have for others about twice-daily or any meditation will ring quite hollow unless I am consistently a living witness of this “hard message” myself, unless I am consistently making time for this twice-daily work of prayer myself.
ReplyDeleteUnless given the gift of wisdom, it is oftentimes difficult to decipher when to express love or to use the rod. This brings to mind Wisdom 6:17-19, "The beginning of wisdom is a sincere desire for discipline, concern for discipline is love of her, and loving her means keeping her laws; the observance of her laws assures one of immortality, and immortality brings us close to God." Oh, I don't fully understand what immortality means to me now, but I am content by feeling close to God...in meditation.
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