Hermitage Note: Making Satisfaction For Faults

I came across this a few days ago in my reading of The Sayings of the Desert Fathers.

Abba Theodore used to say, ‘If you have affection for a man, and it happens that he fall into temptation, stretch out your hand to him, and lift him up therefrom, but if he fall into heresy, and will not be persuaded by you to return, cut him off from you immediately, lest, if you tarry long with him, you be drawn to him, and you sink down into the uttermost depths.’[1]

We live in terribly deceptive and dangerous times.

The health and welfare of our souls has never been more at stake. It is bad enough that Satan is running unchecked and wildly luring people of all ages into sins of the flesh. It is imperative that we also recognize Satan masquerading in heretical theologies and doctrines that, in their essence and effect, separate us from God and plunge us into uttermost depths where we drown in the spittle of our own imaginations.

I was listening to a homily by a young, vibrant Franciscan friar a few days ago. He pretty much nailed it in regards to all that is going on in the world and in the Church. It, for us Catholics, basically comes down to one thing. It's not a matter of who is conservative or who is liberal. It's not a matter of who is modern or who is traditional. It is simply a matter of who is being a "faithful" Catholic. We are one of two things as Catholics. We are either a “faithful” Catholic or we are an “unfaithful” Catholic.

This pretty much sums up where I am these days: I am merely doing my utmost to be a “faithful” Catholic … something that sadly is not popular in the world we live in.

I cannot do a thing about what is going on in the world other than to pray and live my life as faithfully as I can as a witness of Christ. The same is true where the Church is concerned. I did not appoint any of the Bishops and have never been consulted as to my opinion about who should be elected as Pope. All I can do is pray for the Church and live my life as faithfully as I can as a follower of Christ.

Making satisfaction for personal infractions is a reoccurring theme in the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Making satisfaction is a crucial theme, not only in the age when Abbot Benedict’s own obedience, stability, and conversion of manners fleshed out an enduring image of monasticism in the West, but, even more so, in these dismissive and rude modern times that we occupy. The reoccurring theme is also granted a short chapter in the Holy Rule where an emphasis is placed upon personally owning up to personal faults rather than leaving them undisclosed until they are pointed out by someone.

If anyone whilst engaged in any work, in the kitchen, in the cellar, in serving, in the bakery, in the garden, at any art or work in any place whatever, committeth a fault, or breaketh or loseth anything, or transgresseth in any way whatever, and he doth not forthwith come before the Abbot and the community, and of his own accord confess his offense and make satisfaction, and it becometh known through another, let him be subjected to a greater correction. If, however, the cause of the offense is secret, let him disclose 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. [Holy Rule Chapter 46]

Anyone … commits a fault … breaks or loses anything … transgresses in any way whatever … does not of his own accord confess his offense and makes satisfaction ... ?

The onus is always on the individual to confess their failures and make satisfaction for them, especially as they regard negatively affecting others both individually and in community. The greater moral tragedy is not the fault itself but rather the efforts made at rationalizing the fault. We can rationalize faults until we are no longer ashamed of them and go on to proudly flaunt them.

Humility is what is at stake. Humility is always what is at stake and there is always plenty in the way of our more fully realizing deepening, or heightening, degrees of humility in our lives.

[1] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 315, Location 1176, Kindle