Early Pastoral Care - The Rule of Monastics and Sinners

Reflection on Pastoral Rule, Irish Penitentials, and Shepherd of Hermas

               

                Rules challenge contemporary ideals of individualism and independence, especially rules with punishments. An alternative vision of the texts selected for this week, sees how written parameters may prevent even worse abuses of power, one that can be referenced if harsher punishments are suggested, one that suggests repentance is possible and actually preferred by God. These texts provide a way to insist upon compassion during a time when those in authority could take away your life and your salvation. As the monastic rules evolves, the practice of humility reflects a value for compassionate thought, encourages contemplative living, and expresses itself not only through works of charity and service, but through exquisite pastoral care.

                My experience practicing and contemplating the Benedictine rule informs my reading of these early pastoral texts. In Heart of Flesh: A Feminist Spirituality for Women and Men, Joan Chittister, OSB, reveals how radical self-acceptance is not only a feminist concept but also one of contemplative life. Because of the focus on humility and obedience in Benedict’s rule, Chittister has contemplated and written extensively on this thread of Christian tradition. In Illuminated Life, Chittister narrows the contemplative life of monasticism down to four dimensions of humility:

1.        Recognize the presence of God in our lives

2.       Accept the gifts of others (wisdom, experience, direction)

3.       Let go of false expectations in daily life

4.       Receive others kindly.

                While there is much to deconstruct and challenge within our readings of Gregory the Great, Hermas, and the Irish monks, there also is the thread Chittister speaks of within them. Attached to this email is an essay from Chittister’s Heart of Flesh, reprinted in 2009 in her regular column with the National Catholic Reporter. In it, she says, “Pride is patriarchy played out in a democratic world to remind its underlings who’s really in charge. Humility brings us, instead, to the presence of God, the wisdom of others, the authenticity of the self, and the esteem of the other that make life, the world, a good and gracious space.”  Chittister convincingly argues throughout her work that such texts actually prevented further abuses of power, by codifying not only compassion from leaders, but also possibilities for repentance and absolution for sinners. This does not detract from the grave consequences of the oppositional binaries of pure/good and sin/evil, not the least of which is the deprecation of women and sexuality.

                However, as Chittister spoke of Benedict as having a feminist soul within the most misogynistic macho of worlds, so to do the writers of these missives appear to strive towards restricting the absolute authority of a few humans in power and opening (previously shut) doors for redemption. Without the years learning from the nuns at Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas, this anti-establishment Gen-Xer may have never reconciled the difference between the teachings of humiliation from my fundamentalist upbringing with the teachings of humility as a spiritual practice, humility not as diminishing or degrading, but as connectedness, relationship, and mutuality, aspects that inform my chaplain ministry daily.

                For my practice, humility is the cornerstone of pastoral care as well as social justice. Chittister also challenges the stereotype of monastic life being isolated and removed. Humility leads to compassion and compassion leads to action. In this way, justice is as important to contemplative life as humility is. She writes, “From contemplation comes not only the consciousness of the universal connectedness of life but the courage to model it as well.” Reading her words again after seminary and years in ministry, I see how she challenges patriarchy and colonialism by encouraging practices of compassion and care. So to, weaved within the directives and prescriptions for punishments, there is a thread of compassion and care within the Pastoral Rule, Irish Penitentials, and visions of Hermas.

Works referenced:

Chittister, Joan. 1998. Heart of flesh : a feminist spirituality for women and men. [S.l.]: William B Eerdmans, 1998.

Chittister, Joan D. 2000. Illuminated life : monastic wisdom for seekers of light. [S.l.]: Orbis Books, 2000.

Chittister, Joan D. 1992. The rule of Benedict : insights for the ages. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1992.

Chittister, Joan D. 1990. Wisdom distilled from the daily : living the rule of Saint Benedict today. [S.l]: Harper, 1990.