Chapter 45: Mistakes in the Oratory
Anyone who makes a mistake in a psalm, responsory, antiphon or reading must have the humility to make immediate reparation there before all the community in the oratory. A failure to do that so clearly shows lack of the humility to put right a fault which was due to carelessness that it must incur a more severe punishment. (From Ch. 45 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
I think about how my distracted state of mind -- a lack of presence -- interferes with meditation or other work I do. But am I alert to how my distracted state of mind diminishes my community?
“Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly” wrote Gilbert Keith Chesterton. Benedict does not proscribe mistakes, does not forbid them. He only proscribes my unwillingness to acknowledge them when I make them. In fact, I will always be making them, until the day I die. I am especially mistake-prone in regard to my life with you and in my efforts to love you, Abba, with all my heart and soul and strength and my neighbor as myself. But nothing, absolutely nothing, is so worth doing, even as poorly and imperfectly as I do it.
ReplyDeleteThe work that I attend to on the outside needs to reflect the inner work. Is love the guiding principle? Love for others follows the love I have for myself in God and the love with which I am loved. I often forget the overwhelming nature of Divine love and mercy which helps me to turn around from self-blame, blaming others and move more freely and lovingly to and with others in acknowledgment of our frailties.
ReplyDeleteI need to be shown the way.