Chapter 2: Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess (paragraph 2)
However, it is also true that, if the flock has been unruly and disobedient and the superiors have done everything possible as shepherds to cure their vicious ways, then they will be absolved in the judgement of God and may say with the psalmist: I have not hidden your teaching in my heart; I have proclaimed your truth and the salvation you offer, but the they despised and rejected me. (From para. 2 of Ch. 2 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
I may not have the teaching authority of an abbot, but I do have opportunities in my life to teach authentically. May my ego become more transparent so that my heart is more visible.
Benedict’s writing here about “unruly monks” reminds me of the story of the group of monks who tried to poison him rather than submit to his authority as abbot. I am well-acquainted with how unruly my heart can be, how readily I can echo Lucifer’s “I will not serve”. Forgive me, Abba. Tame my stubborn belligerency, as any loving mother or father tames their tantrum-throwing two-year old.
ReplyDelete"I have proclaimed your truth and your salvation". It is in the "proclaiming" that I can examine my actions in the light of the ways of the Rule. Righteous, judgemental, critical, pushy are adjectives that come to mind when I examine my actions. Where is compassion? Where is gentleness? These are the ways of Benedict in teaching and in caring. Teaching and authority as Christ showed us and which Benedict reflected in his life are more effective in loving words and actions. "The function of authority is not to control the other; it is to guide and to challenge and to enable the other," comments Joan Chittister. It is easy for me to say but not always easy to do. And I pray that in the doing I may be freed from the ego .
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