Chapter 23: Faults which deserve excommunication
If even this does not bring reform then excommunication should be the next penalty, provided that the meaning of such a punishment is really understood. (From Ch. 23 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
In our day, excommunication carries the terrible implication of shunning. But in Benedict's day, I sense that the term was used to the create some strict boundaries to help a troubled soul appreciate the power and purpose of community. In my own life, habits of mind like judgment and alienation carry their own misery, not unlike shunning or being shunned, though maybe on a more subtle level. Meditation helps me to recognize these self-centered mindsets that draw me away from community.
"If a brother is found to be obstinate, or 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," If only I would listen, there is that 'senior' in me that subtly tells me if I being off the track.
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