RB Reflection: 7 July 2008

Chapter 30. The Manner of Reproving Boys

Every age and level of understanding should receive appropriate treatment. Therefore, as often as boys and the young, or those who cannot understand the seriousness of the penalty of excommunication, are guilty of misdeeds, they should be subjected to severe fasts or checked with sharp strokes so that they may be healed.

I nearly skipped this chapter because I call it the brutalizing chapter. If they are slow, mentally retarded, or a young boy, then by all means, beat the hell out of them! Okay, so maybe that's not what Benedict means here, but it has been the practice of society up to the present day. And I'm sure there have always been mean spirited people who took full advantage of the latitude this chapter allowed them. Need we consider the sexual abuse scandal? I thought not.

We may consider that it was a different day and time in Benedict's day, and that's all fine with me. But who cares. What's this got to do with today for Lay Cistercians?

Does this give us the right to strike one another, especially the one who never seems to quite get it? No!

Well then, what about the one who never shows up but takes up a valuable room at the retreat? No!

Does this mean no hitting anyone? Yes!

The point here is that whatever level of understanding exists among individual members of the LCG, we must strive to help them understand on their level. Sometimes that may mean telling someone that perhaps the Lay Cistercian path just is not for them. Or even more frightening, requiring the rabblerouser to show a real penance!

If you upset your local group, do I think you should lay face down to make amends? Good heavens, no. That's just showing off. I think it's showing off when monks do it too, especially if done where someone outside the monastic community can see it. However, if you upset your local group, you might be required to make amends in some way, perhaps as easily as saying, "I'm sorry."

We must love one another as ourselves. Yet, even when loving ourselves we have to face our shortcomings and call ourselves to account. Perhaps it is time we do the same in our groups.

May God bring us altogether, the slow, the rebellious, and the young, to everlasting life.