As a Morals Tutor to America's Wealthiest, I find this advice from The Rule of St. Benedict, helpful in working with my more incorrigible values-based planning clients.
If a brother hath often been corrected and hath even been excommunicated for a fault and doth not amend, let a more severe correction be applied to him, namely, proceed against him with corporal punishment.
But if even then he doth not reform, or puffed up with pride, should perhaps, which God forbid, even defend his actions, then let the Abbot act like a prudent physician. After he hath applied soothing lotions, ointments of admonitions, medicaments of the Holy Scriptures, and if, as a last resource, he hath employed the caustic of excommunication and the blows of the lash, and seeth that even then his pains are of no avail, let him apply for that brother also what is more potent than all these measures: his own prayer and that of the brethren, that the Lord who is all-powerful may work a cure in that brother.
In any case, the good Physician must adapt the prescription to the specific case. We are judged in this business by our measurable results. It is not enough to talk a good game, applying the ointments of admonition, thrashing a client, lopping off this or that limb, belting him into a straight-jacket, drilling holes in his head, praying for him, or even excommunicating the patient from the holy fellowship where nature meets culture in a gated community of conscience in Paradise Valley. The only true measure for a Moral Healer like me is whether the client actually repents and amends. My own track record in that respect, I admit, is not good. But we must try, try again. Ms. Johnson! Come back here this instant! Excuse me. Another of my charges has broken loose again.
Comments