Third Sunday of Lent
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March 4, 2018We come now to the fifth step of humility. Reading it can be difficult depending on the translation, but practicing it can have powerful effects. Here is a fairly helpful translation as well as a related passage from RB:
“The fifth step of humility is that a man does not conceal from his abbot any sinful thoughts entering his heart, or any wrongs committed in secret, but rather confesses them humbly. Concerning this, Scripture exhorts us: “Make known your way to the Lord and hope in him…” And in RB 46 we hear, “When the cause of the sin lies hidden in his conscience, he is to reveal it only to the abbot or to one of the spiritual elders, who know how to heal their own wounds as well as those of others, without exposing them and making them public.”
When I entered and read the Rule, I received the inspiration to give the practice of the fifth step my first priority, that is, to be open about my faults and sinful inclinations. I wanted my vocation to be discerned on the basis of who I really was. The result was quite significant and relates to something that came up in the last vision paper we discussed: the experience of spiritual fatherhood and motherhood.
I think the one thing that does not surprise us at all about the mother and father of a family, in fact we really expect it of them, is correction. These are persons who, by the very nature of their role, have the responsibility to point out to their sons and daughters important things about their characters, beautiful things first of all, but also things that get in the way of that beauty. I can recall how lovingly and truthfully my own father conducted his original version of the monastic Chapter of Faults: “Now, Maureen, you are always so (he would mention a positive trait), but sometimes you are a little (then comes the negative trait).” Then he would turn to my sister and say, “Now, Chrissy, you are always so…, but sometimes you are a little…” Although this was very infrequent, what he shared was unforgettable for the simple reason that he was amazingly accurate---and amazingly kind!
Whether we want or do not want to use the terms “father” or “mother” for the abbess or others in the community, especially those more directly responsible for our spiritual guidance, the fact is something is born in us when a word is addressed to our very soul, to our conscience, to our unique self in our own personal situation by someone with whom we have shared our interior life and who knows how we live in community. This is a word unlike any other—so intimate and truthful and having the power to heal us and to pierce us with joy or pain or sorrow or a combination of all of these. My own experience in the monastery has been a deep experience of the mystery of coming to birth by words of truth directed to me personally, and when I read Pope Saint John Paul’s Apostolic Letter “The Light of the East”, I couldn’t help but resonate with what he said about spiritual fatherhood:
“A monk’s way is not generally marked by personal effort alone. He turns to a spiritual father to whom he abandons himself with filial trust, in the certainty that God’s tender and demanding fatherhood is manifested in him…The East in particular teaches that there are brothers and sisters to whom the Spirit has granted the gift of spiritual guidance. They are precious points of reference, for they see things with the loving gaze with which God looks at us. It is not a question of renouncing one’s own freedom, in order to be looked after by others. It is benefiting from the knowledge of the heart, which is a true charism, in order to be helped, gently and firmly, to find the way of truth. Our world desperately needs such spiritual guides. It has frequently rejected them, for they seemed to lack credibility or their example appeared out of date and scarcely attractive to current sensitivities. Nevertheless, it is having a hard time finding new ones, and so suffers in fear and uncertainty, without models or reference points. He who is a father in the spirit, if he really is such---and the people of God have always shown their ability to recognize him---will not make others equal to himself, but will help them find the way to the Kingdom.”
May we be forever grateful for the life giving words from those whose knowledge of the heart has shaped and healed our lives.