A Chapter Conference on Chapter 64 of the Holy Rule

+ It is impossible to listen to chapter 64 of the Holy Rule “On the appointment of the abbot” and once again to hear the high standards set by Saint Benedict for the father of the monastery without a profound realisation of how much any ecclesiastical superior must rely on God’s grace even to begin to approach the standards required of him and indeed, without it provoking an examination of conscience. Please pray for your monastic father!

Of course, in enjoining that the Rule be read aloud often in the community (ch. 66) Saint Benedict is ensuring that the brethren remain focussed on the fundamentals of our life and vocation – the superior above all. Please God the reading of a chapter of the Rule twice each day, thus reading it in its entirety three times each year, ensures our vocational recollection and, where necessary, prompts the correction of what needs to be corrected so that our lives are ones of increasing fidelity to our particular vocation. We, individually, and as a monastic family, certainly can do more in this respect, and our God given growth in numbers will facilitate that further.

It is right and indeed necessary that we look first to ourselves and correct what is necessary and seek ways of living the Rule in our small monastic family more faithfully. But it is impossible in these middle days of August 2018 to hear Saint Benedict speak of the stewardship of the abbot, and of the fact that the abbot must render an account to Almighty God for his actions, without a heavy heart. For in these days the Church has once again been grievously wounded by the scandal of the sin of her fathers, and now also of that of some of her apostles whose stewardship has been found to be wantonly lacking.

Neither the monk nor the monastery is usually in the ‘front-line’ of the essential and indispensable work of seeking the justice necessary for victims of abusive clerical behaviour. Sometimes monasteries are privileged to be able to aid the ongoing process of individuals’ healing. Occasionally, and rightly, they play a discrete but important role in the conversion and penance necessary for a penitent priest or bishop.

More often, however, we are at least at one remove from these horrific realities and can be tempted to think of them as matters to be dealt with by primarily by others. In some ways that is true and correct. But the crisis erupting in these days bids us to recall what we can, what we ought, indeed what we must do in the face of the evil of sins of abuse and of the dark, silent complicity of some of our shepherds in respect of it. What we must do is to be ever more faithful to and fervent in our monastic vocation of prayer and work.

It is apposite at this time to recall that a fundamental element of our prayer is intercession for the Church and the world. If the monk does not do this, who can? Let us, then, in these troubled days, not omit to offer our participation in the Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Hours of the Divine Office for those who, in the Body of Christ, have been so deeply wounded by the sins of those whose vocation is in fact to heal. Let us pray for the healing of these injuries. Let the words of the psalmist crying to heaven for justice rise anew to Almighty God on our lips. And let us pray that the ecclesiastical and civil authorities are guided in taking just and prudent steps in both redressing the evils committed and in protecting against them in the future, as well as to find appropriate means of facilitating the conversion of those who have gravely sinned.

Another fundamental element of the monastic vocation is penance and reparation. In the first place the monk offers penance in reparation for his own sins. And he does so for the sins of others, for the sins that injure and disfigure the Body of Christ.

Yesterday the Holy Father addressed a letter to the Church calling for greater prayer, fasting and penance in response to the scandalous revelations of recent weeks. He is right so to do. The damage done must be repaired, and we must begin this work with all the spiritual means at our disposal.

Accordingly, I ask that, in reparation for our sins and for the sins of those pastors who have betrayed their God-given trust, we not only renew our fervour in prayer and intercession, but that we also, privately, each week take on some act of penance and of fasting beyond our common observances.

In addition, as a communal act of penance and reparation, as a particular offering for the good of the Church in our times – most particularly for her children who have been so viciously harmed – I ask that henceforth we advance the hour for the Office of Matins to 03h45. Let us offer Almighty God the sacrifice of rising a bit earlier each day and thereby make up, at least in this small way, for the evils that have been perpetrated against the innocent.

My brothers, we can feel utterly powerless in the face of all that confronts us and the Church today, particularly when the shepherds of the Church themselves appear to be complicit in such evils. But in the economy of grace we have the power of prayer, of penance and of fasting. In the face of evil, we must turn anew to these goods, with faith and confidence in God’s grace. We monks must fight evil with these spiritual weapons.

If we persevere in this resolve our own stewardship shall not be found wanting. And it is this faithful stewardship which Saint Benedict requires of each of his sons, be they the abbot or be they newly arrived at the monastery or anywhere in between. +