Chapter 44: The reconciliation of those excommunicated
Anyone who is excommunicated from the refectory only for a less serious fault should perform the same act of reparation in the oratory until permitted to cease; the superior brings this penance to an end by giving a blessing and saying 'that is enough'. (From para. 2 of Ch. 44 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
I think the power behind the words "that is enough" is that of forgiveness and personal growth, when a time of sorrow must become a time of new life.
I think the power behind the words "that is enough" is that of forgiveness and personal growth, when a time of sorrow must become a time of new life.
Excommunication ends with forgiveness, that word I did not yet fully understand until a few years ago. That’s when I heard a woman who had suffered a lot from an alcoholic husband define “forgiveness” as “giving up all hope of changing the past”. Forgiveness means truly letting bygones be bygones. It means that, while caring for myself, also giving up any and all resentments for past betrayals, lost loves, hurts, whatever from the past eats at me. It means letting go, learning to live in the present, leaving the past to your mercy, Abba. It means, above all, forgiving myself, giving up all hope of changing my past. My past, above all, I must leave to your mercy, Abba, and move as your little one into the opportunity that is today, the only moment I have, our moment.
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