Community June 29
If he refuses to submit to punishment, he shall be expelled from your brotherhood even if he does not withdraw of his own accord. For this too is not done out of cruelty, but from a sense of compassion so that many others may not be lost through his bad example (Rule of St. Augustine, 27).
“If someone refuses to listen to them, tell it to the Church; and if the person refuses also to listen to the Church, let that person be for you like an pagan or a publican” (Mt 18:17). These words clarify the prophetic vocation of the Church: affirm the good, denounce the evil. The Church has the intention of welcoming all humanity in the community of salvation. She is the sign and instrument of this redemption in the world. Every baptized person publicly vows to leave behind the corrupt habits of the world and to live by the Spirit in Christ, in effect, to participate in this prophetic mission. Giving every opportunity to weak members for continual conversion, the Church, in the end, also has the instinct for self-preservation that will expel self-destructive elements. This is right because, by mission, the space of grace that the Church is ought to radiate goodness and unmask evil without ambiguity. The religious community, as an expression in miniature of the prophetic Church, is obligated to exercise these same dynamics. This is the basic reason justifying sending a member away.
A lamb that is not docile becomes so when his head is in the pot. (Nande)
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