Today’s reading from the Rule seems narrow: how should the community relate to one who has been excommunicated? Benedict’s instruction may sound severe. Yet beneath it lies a difficult wisdom about recovery, responsibility, and love.
We have reflected in recent days on the false self—its affinity for comfort and its desire for control. We want healing without pain, growth without surrender, transformation without sacrifice. Yet there comes a moment when we must act and no one can act on our behalf.
The Desert Fathers and Mothers knew this well. They sought solitude not because community was unimportant, but because some encounters with the self cannot be delegated. Others may pray for us, encourage us, forgive us—but we must consent to transformation—we must surrender.
This is central to the heart of the Rule. We are responsible for ourselves. There are moments when love must not interfere with the work another person must do. Help that seeks to rescue can shield us from the truth. Companionship may very well discourage us from the surrender recovery requires.
We understand this in physical therapy. The therapist may guide us. But we must face the stress and pain of restoring the body.
So too with the soul.
No one else can confess our fault, relinquish our resentments, surrender our illusion of control, or take the first trembling steps toward another life. Grace surrounds us. Community sustains us. Prayer strengthens us. But there will be sacred sacrifice that remains ours alone.
Perhaps the lesson today is twofold: to undertake courageously our own work, and to remain faithfully near those undertaking theirs. Sometimes the very presence of loves heals.
Know my healing presence.
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