On Community Rules

From "In the Spirit of Transparency"
October 30, 1998

The saying, “rules are made to be broken” may easily find legitimacy in secular circles but not so in a Christian community. The rules of Christian communities such as ours are predicated on the greatest commandments: the love of God and the love of our neighbors. If Christian love is the spirit that activates our rules, then we must exert every effort to live up to them.

The Holy Family gives us a good model to emulate in living up to the established rules: “When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth” (Luke 2:39). The Lord’s disciples and followers also provide examples of obedience to the guidelines from the Lord. Before feeding the five thousand, Jesus “ordered them (His disciples) to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties” (Mark 6:39-40).

If adherence to rules is required, why then do we allow certain exceptions to the rule? The law of love that demands disciplined observance of established rules is the same law of love that compels us to be open to the direction of the Holy Spirit. In such cases, our stewards would fact-find, consult, prayerfully discern the Spirit’s directions and confirm their discernment with the Council of Servant Leaders. Christian love requires that such care be exercised.

How do we show true Christian love to a couple in an invalid marriage? Is it by accepting them to the ME before they validate their marriage? Or is it by first helping them take the required steps leading to marriage validation, after which we admit them to the ME? One may argue that these two options constitute a process. Even so, we believe that starting with the latter option is best for the spiritual welfare of the couple. Other communities’ past experience with the first option bear this out: couples in invalid marriages who felt angry that they could not share in the Eucharistic communion; couples in similar situation who received communion anyway; validly married couples who were disillusioned to learn that the rules of admission were not uniformly applied to all.

We will never close the door to any candidate, but rather lead them to reconciliation with the Father and restoration to the sacramental life of the Church. We will do it by abiding by our rules and those of the Church, and through prayerful discernment of exception requests.

“Similarly, an athlete cannot receive the winner's crown except by competing according to the rules” (2 Tim. 2:5).