On Those Who Fail in Any Other Matters
Mar. 26
When anyone is engaged in any sort of work, whether in the kitchen, in the cellar, in a shop, in the bakery, in the garden, while working at some craft, or in any other place, and he commits some fault, or breaks something, or loses something, or transgresses in any other way whatsoever, if he does not come immediately before the Abbot and the community of his own accord to make satisfaction and confess his fault, then when it becomes known through another, let him be subjected to a more severe correction.
But if the sin-sickness of the soul is a hidden one, let him reveal it only to the Abbot or to a spiritual father, who knows how to cure his own and others’ wounds without exposing them and making them public.
Reflection
Today we are invited to distinguish two kinds of faults in order to learn how to correct them. When we break or lose something in the house or elsewhere, we have to ask pardon and that’s that. (But we can at the same time replace the broken or lost object.)
As for our sins, we must reveal them to our spiritual father, we must open to him what is disturbing our heart. We then receive the assurance of God’s love when we present ourselves naked before Him, and, with forgiveness and absolution given, we will be set free from ourselves.
