Chapter 27: The superior's care for the excommunicated
Therefore the superior should use every curative skill as a wise doctor does, for instance by sending in senpectae, that is, mature and wise senior members of the community who may discreetly bring counsel to one who is in a state of uncertainty and confusion; their task will be to show the sinner the way to humble reconciliation and also to bring consolation, as St Paul also urges, to one in danger of being overwhelmed by excessive sorrow and in need of the reaffirmation of love which everyone in the community must achieve through their prayer. (From para. 1 of Ch. 27 of St. Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)
After having made my way through the difficult chapters on excommunication, it's a blessing to read the outpouring of compassionate inclusion that Benedict bestows upon the "one in danger of being overwhelmed by excessive sorrow". I hear him saying that the wisdom that cures is not driven by anyone's ego, but by "the reaffirmation of love which everyone in the community must achieve through their prayer".
"You can show your love to others by not wishing that they should be better Christians." (Francis of Assisi)
ReplyDeleteAnother shocker to my spiritual worldview, as it was to Franciscan Richard Rohr's ("Eager To Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi", Chap 8). But it seems to me a perfect complement to Benedict 's advice about how an Abbot or Abbess should deal with the excommunicated. And about how I should approach and think about anyone who does not measure up to my standards, spiritual or otherwise. When I wish that someone I love were a better Christian: who would have thought that that could bespeak hypocrisy and arrogance and spiritual pride on my part! Abba, from my unknown sins deliver me.