ENLARGING THE HEART UPDATE: 1ST January 2015 We now begin a new series of commentaries on the Rule of our Holy Father Saint Benedict (Series 3). We hope this will continue to be a source of spiritual nourishment for you. Daily readings from the Rule of Saint Benedict By a Benedictine of Saint Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde "... as we progress in our monastic life and in faith, our hearts shall be enlarged, and we shall run with unspeakable sweetness of love in the way of God's commandments." (From the Prologue of the Rule of Saint Benedict) |
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St
Benedict wrote his Rule for monks some fifteen centuries ago. Driven by his love of Christ, he wanted to
establish his monastery as a “school of the Lord’s service”: a place where
people who truly seek God could find him; places where “authentic Gospel values
prevail”[1];
where nothing whatever would be preferred to Christ. The Rule of St Benedict
spread all over Europe, and had an enormous influence on the life and spirituality
of the Latin Church. It continues to
inspire monks, nuns, and countless lay people throughout the world today. Like
many monasteries we divide the Rule into sections so that the whole Rule is
covered over a period of three months. The commentaries will follow the
sequence of the sections. |
CHAPTER
23: ON
EXCOMMUNICATION FOR FAULTS Feb 28 If any brother is found to be contumacious, or
disobedient, or proud, or a murmurer, or in any way opposed to the Holy Rule
and the orders of his seniors, or contemptuous, let him, according to Our
Lord's commandment, be admonished once or twice privately by his seniors. If he does not amend, let him be rebuked in
public before all. But if even then he
does not correct himself, let him be subjected to excommunication, if he understands
the nature of that punishment. Should
he, however, not be amenable to such corrections, let him be subjected to
corporal punishment. The following 8 chapters of the Rule are devoted to
the correction of faults. This section
is no doubt the one with the least present-day application. Despite the Rule of
St Benedict’s tremendous influence throughout the centuries, it remains a
sixth-century Rule. But if we allow our
own horizons to broaden somewhat to take in something of the Rule’s
perspective, if we try to see things from its standpoint, we can learn much
from it. For example, in these chapters we find some precious teaching about
community life and about how our actions affect that life, and of our need for
conversion and purification. It is important to realize that what is being dealt
with here is not weakness or ignorance but consistent complaining, resistance,
rebellion, scorning the rule and our superiors.
It is a question then of faults against the community and fraternal
charity. Note how St Benedict refers us
back to the Lord’s commandment, to the Gospel where the Lord prescribes first
correcting someone privately, then before witnesses, and finally before the
presence of the ecclesiastical community (Mt 18:15-17). He situates this
correction in the ecclesiastical order established by Christ. Growth is
gradual; St Benedict legislates for warnings, but he also recognizes that we
need to grow. He wants to stop an action before it takes root in us. We tend to think of our faults as something between
ourselves and God, or ourselves and another.
St Benedict recognizes that they have an effect on the whole
community. As members of a single body,
we cannot be indifferent when a member injures itself and therefore damages the
life of the whole. The notion that what
we do affects others is lost today. These
chapters are not about punishment but about charity and responsibility. |