Holy Rule for March 26

[St. Mary's Monastery]

+PAX
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule

March 26, July 26, November 25
Chapter 46: On Those Who Fail in Any Other Matters

When anyone is engaged in any sort of work, whether in the kitchen, in the cellar, in a shop, in the bakery, in the garden, while working at some craft, or in any other place, and she commits some fault, or breaks something, or loses something, or transgresses in any other way whatsoever, if she does not come immediately before the Abbess and the community of her own accord to make satisfaction and confess her fault, then when it becomes known through another, let her be subjected to a more severe correction. But if the sin-sickness of the soul is a hidden one, let her reveal it only to the Abbess or to a spiritual mother, who knows how to cure her own and others' wounds without exposing them and making them public.

REFLECTION

I can hear parents relating to this one! "When you break something, why don't you tell me? Don't just hide the pieces and say nothing." Well, truthfully, sometimes people may have been afraid to ask us because of ways we have reacted before, but that's not always so. As a former guest master, I can assure you that some adults have very adolescent habits when it comes to breaking something, even though they never had any dealings with me on the matter before. Nothing is said, the damage is hidden and I'd find out a lot later.

That's too bad, because I really like to give a monastic witness to the value of people before things and a broken plate or glass or toilet is a great way to do that. When people do come to me, always apologetic, and often quite sheepish as well, I say something like: "Oh, that's OK! We can always get another pitcher, but we can never get another you! People before things!"

People before things. That is so crucial to remember, because all of us have lived in a very materialist world. For people of our times, some of the Holy Rule's insistence that we be careful of the earthly goods of monastery or home must be carefully balanced. Otherwise, we run into the trap of becoming monastic materialists, quite a contradiction in terms, to say the least.

Yes, we must be careful of things, but we must always keep uppermost in our minds that the greatest treasures of family or monastery or workplace are the members themselves. If frugality becomes stinginess, if conservation breaks charity, we are way, way off the mark.

There's another little gem here, right at the end. Not everyone in the group needs to know all your details all the time, but letting no one at all know is equally foolish. A balance must be obtained here, as in all things.

Knowing whom to tell what to is a delicate art of paying very close attention to reality of the other person. Such attentiveness to another is an exquisite exercise of personalism, a trait we should all desire! Some people may not be trustworthy, others may not profit from knowing for other reasons, like distress or worry or even scandal. Weigh those considerations very, very carefully.

Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)