| Mt 5: 43-48 Love your enemies Mass Tuesday 15th June
‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.”
It was a lively Chapter last evening. Not surprisingly, the Community Discussion is still with us, thinking of the contradictions or dialogue, or multi-alogue. We look for the golden thread through the talk-talk.
Love your enemies, it is something so astonishing that it has to be the voice of God and none other
And lead us into the Mass … |
The evening community discussion touched on the interesting topic of the elderly monks and the care of the sick.
The name SENPECTAS, a wise physician, is always a topic in monastic debate.
| A Wise Physician “SENPECTAS” | |
| XXVII. QUALITER DEBEAT ABBAS SOLLICITUS ESSE CIRCA EXCOMMUNICATOS Omni sollicitudine curam gerat abbas circa delinquentcs fratres, quia non est opus sanis medicus sed male habentibus. Et ideo uti debet omni modo ut sapiens medicus, immittere senpectas, id est seniores sapientes fratres, qui quasi secrete consolentur fratrem fluctuantem et provocent ad humilitatis satisfac- | CHAPTER 27. THE ABBOT'S CONCERN FOR THE EXCOMMUNICATED The abbot must exercise the utmost care and concern for wayward brothers, because it is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick (Matt 9: 12). Therefore, he ought to use every skill of a wise physician and send in senpectae , that is, mature and wise brothers who, under the cloak of secrecy, may support the wavering brother, urge him to be humble as a way of making satisfaction, and console him lest he be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow (2 Cor 2:7). Rather, as the Apostle also says: |
| Notes: 27.2 "a wise physician" (sapiens medicus): The metaphor introduced here extends into Ch. 28. For the background of the idea of the abbot as a physician, see Appendix 4, n.77. See also Appendix 2, p. 352 and the note on 2.8. "senpectas",
| |
| RB 1980: the rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English
| |
