VincentWiki:Reflections/8 2007
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
- Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 5:20)
On St. Scholastica’s last visit with St. Benedict that occurred just three days before her death, the sister pleaded with the brother that he not leave until the next day (cf. the second reading in the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours for the memorial of St. Scholastica). The brother refused; he did not think the holy conversation about the delights of spiritual life that the sister wanted to continue would be a sufficient justification for him to be exempted from a monastic rule. Not giving up, though, St. Scholastica “joined her hands on the table, laid her head on them and began to pray.” Suddenly “there were such brilliant flashes of lightning, such great peals of thunder and such a heavy downpour of rain” that St. Benedict’s return was not deemed advisable. Still certain, however, that God’s will demanded that he return to the monastery that very evening, St. Benedict exclaimed: “May God forgive you, sister. What have you done?”
