Chapter 2: Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess (paragraph 2)
In fact they should remember that they will have to account in the awesome judgement of God both for their own teaching and also for the obedience of their disciples. (From para. 2 of Ch. 2 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
My hunch about the judgment of God is that it's "awesome" because it's somehow inclusive, and probably the term "judgment" doesn't really apply at all. I'm treading on mysterious territory here, but the contemplative experience helps me see that so-called judgment may actually be more of a purification -- a burning away of all that causes individual separateness -- but not of individual responsibility. I'm responsible for my own actions and the infinite ways they reverberate in the universe. This is a paradox of uniqueness and unity.
In this Chapter of the Rule on Qualities of the Abbott or Prioress, there is the line, "Everything they teach and command should like the leaven of divine justice, permeate the community"(Chittister, The Rule of Benedict). "Leaven" is based on the Latin, "levare" to lift. As a spouse, parent, grandparent, and community/parish volunteer am I lifting other's spirits or weighing them down with my own needs. Am I providing an environment for others and myself that lifts us up towards God or pulls us down because of the desire to please myself and others? If I call myself a meditator then I need to live with the awareness of God's loving presence everywhere and in everyone with trust,love and
ReplyDeletejoy. That Loving Presence of God is in me and that is where that awareness begins. It begins with me in the silence of my heart with the Divine Source of Love.