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 prayer. (From Ch. 27 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
I think what St. Benedict is offering is a compassionate response, or re-balancing, to an experience of penitential solitude. In solitude I can build a true relationship with myself, and with my Inner Teacher. But I can also be prone to the dilemmas that he observes: uncertainty, confusion, a need for humble reconciliation and consolation, being overwhelmed by excessive sorrow, in need of the reaffirmation of love. Thus, there seems to me to be a trinity of essential relationships: to myself, to God, and to others -- a trinity of redemptive relationships.
I think what St. Benedict is offering is a compassionate response, or re-balancing, to an experience of penitential solitude. In solitude I can build a true relationship with myself, and with my Inner Teacher. But I can also be prone to the dilemmas that he observes: uncertainty, confusion, a need for humble reconciliation and consolation, being overwhelmed by excessive sorrow, in need of the reaffirmation of love. Thus, there seems to me to be a trinity of essential relationships: to myself, to God, and to others -- a trinity of redemptive relationships.
Maybe there is a time in a person’s life when there is no member of the community to whom one may turn. This happened in my case. I think a couple of things happened-one, through my daily prayer, I was made aware of the fact that help was needed because I was running around mentally in circles, and two- that I was not as strong, spiritually, as I thought I was in order to make progress. I like Joan Chittister’s comment in this chapter, “The idea that the spiritual life is only for the strong, for those who don’t need it anyway, is completely dispelled in the Rule of Benedict. Here spiritual athletes need not apply”.(Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality For The 21st Century, p.151)
ReplyDeleteI was looking for certain kind of answers through and in meditation that would help me with relationships. God does not work the way I expected Him to work. Instead, I was sent out to look for someone “wise” and “mature” who could “discreetly bring counsel” to me who has been “in a state of uncertainty and confusion”. I go back also to Fr. Laurence’s talks on “Health and Wholeness” in which he helped me to see that through meditation Christ as the “Divine Physician” is healing me and my relationships with the help of someone else.