Another term for sanctification is 'perfect love'. This term was used by Wesley and I was interested to encounter it at the core of Benedictine spirituality.
A few years ago the BBC transmitted a series called 'The Monastery', where 5 modern men spent forty days and forty nights at Worth Abbey. The Abbot, Christopher Jamieson, published a book on 1 May 2006 about Benedictine spirituality because of the interest the television programme had raised. He published 'finding sanctuary: monastic steps for everyday life' on a secular imprint, deliberately avoiding the usual Christian publishing houses. On the day of publishing I heard him speak on Radio 4's 'Start the Week' and also at the first Christian Mind, Body and Spirit festival at Coventry Cathedral. The book had to be reprinted within the week.
In his chapter about humility the author writes about the 12 runged ladder that you 'ascend by falling'. The 12th rung (I'm not sure if it is the top or bottom as you ascend by falling) is called 'perfect love'. I don't know whether John Wesley had read any Benedictine spirituality. I think it's likely he found 'perfect love' there but it is also likely to be a coincidence. Jamieson writes on page 107,
The twelfth step is for a monk's humility to be evident 'in his bearing no less than in his heart'. ... The humble person is known by the combination of both physical and personal attitude. And what is this attitude? Nothing spectacular and nothing heroic, simply the realisation 'Lord, I am a sinner'; ... the constant mindfulness of sin is the top rung. On this final step the monk's mindfulness of his faults is a source of joy, because it reminds him of God's mercy and how much God loves him. ... his distinguishing mark is a deep awareness of his own faults, a lack of complaint about the faults of others and a constant singing of God's praises in thankfulness for mercy. Having climbed the ladder, he has come back down to earth, ascending by falling.
Wesley wrote about 'involuntary transgressions' and that 'you may call (them) sins, if you please; I do not.' He never denied their importance however or that they needed 'atoning blood'. Runyon writes on page 87 of 'The New Creation':
In the more than two centuries separating us from Wesley we have discovered, with the help of Freud and others, the human propensity to fool ourselves, to cloak from ourselves and others the subterranean motivations that influence our thoughts and actions. These call into question any rationalistic definition of sin that requires consciousness. Moreover we have discovered, with the help of Marx and others, that the sins that have the most far-reaching and devastating effects are usually more than individual. They are perpetrated by social, political and economic structures that are not only beyond the control of individuals but are protected by "ideologies" that make them appear to be inevitable and God-ordained.
So, we must think of perfection as increased awareness of sins especially those we hide from ourselves or as a part of the social systems we find ourselves participating in. The point is that sin imprisons all of us in a cage of our own making. Grace frees us and as we become aware of the outline of the cage we can evade its grasp and step outside and act free from the forces that normally control us. So, the doctrine of original sin is actually a doctrine of liberation, liberation effected by grace ultimately leading to sanctification. As Runyon puts it as we bring our 'mistakes' to consciousness, we can, with God's grace, overcome them.
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