Chapter Twenty Five

Punishment for more serious faults

‘Anyone with the infection of a really serious offence is to be excluded not only from the common table but from common prayer in the oratory as well. None of the community should associate with or talk to the guilty person, who is to persevere alone in sorrow and penance on whatever work has been allotted, remembering St Paul’s fearful judgement when he wrote to the Corinthians that: such a one should be handed over for the destruction of the flesh so that the spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. As for meals, they are to be provided in solitude and the abbot or abbess must decide the amounts and the times that are appropriate. No-one should offer a blessing in passing the guilty person nor should the food provided be blessed.’

Save from being removed from the cloister, having the habit taken away and being turned loose from the monastery this chapter offers the greatest insight into the harshest punishment available to the one at fault. Such is their crime against God, themselves and their brothers in Christ that they are now no longer even allowed to join their brothers in the oratory to participate in the communal life of prayer, no blessing or greeting is to be given them as they go about their work and even their food is to remain unblessed.

Bearing in mind that not every monk was a priest this was a very harsh punishment. A priest may call down a blessing upon their own foot and may say mass where they are in order to participate the Great Prayer and receive in the Divine Sacraments of the Church, but here, the guilty, especially if they are not a priest themselves, is made to go without. It is an escalation of the tactic we encountered in the previous chapter – it is to take away all that is good, the blessings of God and the greetings of the brethren. This is social isolation within the monastery, as though the offence to God and the community has made the individual invisible in the eyes of everyone else, that it may magnify the gaze of God upon their soul and drive them to repentance.

It is most notable that Benedict refers to serious offence as an infection and the advice he  gives in terms of punishment is essentially like that of quarantine. Of course, in the terms of physical health, an infection does damage to the person with it, however, it also poses a risk to others and sometimes, because of age or underlying medical conditions, the infection passed on by one to another may be even more dangerous. Such is sin in the community. Whether or not it has an obvious, outward effect on the guilty person the repercussions can be far greater. The example set to the young novice, seeking their way, or to the new convert looking for an example, can have their vocation or call shattered by the behaviour of another, it can go even further than that an be a matter of the salvation of their own soul.

Just as Jesus warns those who put anything in the way of the innocent coming to Him will face even greater judgment – those who cause the stumbling of others will be judged harshly.

Benedict is building people of fierce compassion, who pray for the world and serve it with their unceasing intercession, and so it is natural that they will take pity on the guilty party, especially if the work of penance is long. However, just as someone may be isolated for infection to protect them and others, Benedict warns them not to interact. This is for their own protection. Unlike medical infections which some people can be immune to or protected against with powerful medicine, there is no vaccination for sin and each of us, the deepest desires of our ego, will find any way to justify the behaviour that it really wants to undertake and latch onto it. One of the most prominent ways that sin can take hold is when we see others doing it and can therefore justify our own participation.

This monastic isolation is the chemical hazmat suit of the spiritual world, to keep out the infection of sin as best we can. It also allows healing without adding other complications into the mix. The sinner has enough to deal with in fighting off their own infectious sin without having also to cope with whatever small foibles or other sins we may introduce to them in their already weakened spiritual state. Once they have been freed from their infection they can be truly embraced again in the fraternal love of Christ.

Lastly, this isolation from the guilty individual should breed within the community a greater love. Although they may still be reeling from the disruption his sin has caused, they should begin to miss his presence and be drawn to consider and contemplate all the good he brings and the strength of his vocation in undertaking this penance in isolation. It helps the community learn to love, or to re-love the wayward brother so that reconciliation may be easier at the end of the isolation. Imagine of the penitent finished their hard work in solitude and returned to a community that was still bristling, that still ignored him and excluded him, this time not for his own good but for malice. He would rightly question why his repentance was necessary in the face of such obvious lack of charity. Isolation provides mutual benefit in the healing of the sick and the protection of the healthy, it also increases the desire to embrace the other in a familial way upon their return and rejoice at their newfound health.