If anyone makes a mistake while he is engaged in any work—in
the kitchen, in the cellar, in serving, in the bakery, in the garden…or if he
breaks something or loses something or behaves badly in some other way and does
not come immediately before the abbot and the community to confess his offense,
but it becomes known through another, let him be subject to a greater
correction. If, however, the cause of
the offense is private, let him tell it to the abbot alone, or to his spiritual
superiors, who know how to heal their own wounds, and not expose and make
public those of others.
Big sin or a little sin, the important thing
is that you come right out and talk about it.
“Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may
be healed,” writes Saint James, “because the fervent prayer of a righteous
person is very powerful” (Jas 5:16).
After all, there’s nothing worse for a wound than to cover it up and let
it fester in secret. “Sunlight” wrote
Louis Brandise, “is the best disinfectant” (Other People's Money, Ch 5).
In
my monastery, we all do our own laundry, and we share a laundry room. We have an iron that everyone uses. Of course, we are always breaking it and
buying replacements. But this one time,
I picked it up to use it, and the thing literally fell to pieces in my
hands. The handle fell off, the wires
fell out, the water in the steam compartment poured out on the floor… Apparently, the last monk to use it had
broken it, but instead of owning up, he had pieced the darn iron back together
and left it balanced on the ironing board for the next person to break. I spent the rest of the day angry.[1]
Whether it’s a
broken iron or a broken promise, all sin has an effect on the broader
community—even private sin, because, as they say, “no man is an island.” The whole world shifts slightly closer to the
void every time we act contrary to God’s will.
Our actions have real consequences.
Different religions call this by different names: “karma,” “Tao,” “the
law of consequences”… Even science has a
name for it: Newton’s Third Law: “For every action, there is an equal and
opposite reaction.” So instead of
letting the world fall to pieces, set it right again by repenting of your sins.
After all, much more is on the line than your own soul.
[1] Turns out, the culprit was
one of the old monks. He had spent all
day piecing the iron back together with what he thought was super glue. In fact, he was using eye drops…
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