Chapter 25: Punishment for more serious faults
None of the community should associate with or talk to the guilty person, who is to persevere alone in sorrow and penance in whatever work has been allotted, remembering St Paul's fearful judgement when he wrote to the Corinthians that: such a one should be handed over for the destruction of the flesh so that the spirit maybe saved on the day of the Lord. (From Ch. 25 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)
St. Benedict's words sound harsh to me, and yet they offer the solace of solitude, work and prayer that build up interiority. His words also remind me to be patient and vigilantly respectful of the difficulties that can be associated with inner growth -- mine and another's.
The need sometimes to sanction those with whom we break bread in community can seldom be clearer than in view of the Catholic Church’s current sex abuse crisis.As Sr. Veronica Openibo put it at the recent Vatican Summit,"At the present time, we are in a state of crisis and shame. We have seriously clouded the grace of the Christ-mission. Is it possible for us to move from fear of scandal to truth? How do we remove the masks that hide our sinful neglect?" Benedict’s Rule reminds me of not only the possibility, but the necessity, of moving from fear of scandal to truth.
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