Chapter 23: Faults which deserve excommunication
If an individual in the community is defiant, disobedient, proud or given to murmuring or in any other way set in opposition to the holy Rule and contemptuous of traditions of the seniors, then we should follow the precepts of the Lord. (From Ch.23 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
In my experience, community may very well be made to bump and bruise my ego. Community can certainly push me way beyond my comfort zone. How does meditation teach me to respond? To find Jesus hidden deep within my heart. This can lead me to new life: an ego tamed to the service of others, and a heart expanding in joyful selflessness.
The community is God's mirror for my life, a mirror both strong and fragile.
ReplyDeleteI loved my simple German-Mexican grandmother. I spent a lot of time living with her or in her care as a child before she died when I was ten. My mother later told me of grandma Berta’s concise assessment of me: “Wally’s a good boy but he can be very stubborn.” It seems as if Benedict also knew me almost 1500 years before I was born when he wrote in Rule 23 of an individual who is “defiant, disobedient, proud . . . given to murmuring or . . . set in opposition . . . ”. Those traits are still with me. Fidelity to my twice-daily meditation and to the mantra, and, above all your grace¸ Abba, help tame this unruly heart of mine, one day at a time.
ReplyDeleteIf a brother is found to be obstinate,
ReplyDeleteor disobedient, or proud, or murmuring,
or habitually transgressing the Holy Rule in any point
and contemptuous of the orders of his seniors,
the latter shall admonish him secretly a first and a second time,
...
When otherwise forgivable faults are coupled with contempt they become major faults. Meditation is a great guard against contempt. Meditation brings me to humility, namely because I see how difficult it is to do something so simple. How can I feel contempt for others when I can barely sit for 30 seconds without my mind wandering?