CHAPTER 31
The Rule, Chapter 31 57 Therefore, they must "be subjected to severe fasts or checked with sharp strokes so that they may be healed."
Fortunately, we do not have to form our impression of St.
Benedict from the sections of the Rule dealing with punishment only. From the rest of the Rule, we know that he hardly appears to be the kind of man who would starve or batter boys.
Chapter 30 surely applies to parents, educators, and others who are responsible for young people. It teaches them this: keep the kids under control. You can't afford to be controlled by them.
CHAPTER 31
Qualifications of the Monastery Cellarer The cellarer should be "someone who is wise, mature in conduct, temperate, not an excessive eater, not proud, excitable, offensive, dilatory or wasteful, but God-fearing, and like a father to the whole community." If the abbot is to be the father who looks after the spiritual needs of the monastery, the cellarer is to be the father who provides for the monks' material needs. Although the cellarer has an important position in the monastery, he always has to remember that it was assigned to him by the abbot. St. Benedict tells the cellarer to follow his job description. "Let him keep to his orders."
We have changed some of our opinions about what is worldly and extravagant, but monks must still avoid making unreasonable demands on the people who procure things for them. When we are out of line, we need someone to "reasonably and humbly deny the improper request." When people live in community, it is easy to take too much for granted; it is easy to violate personal poverty by presuming that the community will provide whatever we want.
58 The Rule, Chapter 31 The cellarer is not responsible for the monks only. "He must show every care and concern for the sick, children, guests and the poor.' The cellarer is in charge of the monastery's charitable works. This is another reason why he must have a pleasing personality. He represents the monastery to the outside world.
St. Gregory relates that during a famine, St. Benedict gave away all the food supplies of the monastery. Nothing was left in the storeroom but a little vessel of oil. The cellarer heard
St. Benedict's command to give away this last bit of oil too.
When St. Benedict asked if this had been done, the cellarer replied, "No. I did not. If I had, there would be none left for the community." St. Benedict was upset, but the disobedient cellarer, in this case, was not dismissed from his job. St. Benedict worked a miracle to teach the selfish cellarer a lesson:
In the room where they were kneeling there happened to be an empty oil-cask that was covered with a lid. In the course of prayer the cask gradually filled with oil and the lid started to float on top of it. The next moment the oil was running down the sides of the cask and covering the floor. As soon as he was aware of this, Benedict ended his prayer and the oil stopped flowing. Then turning to the monk who had shown himself disobedient and wanting in confidence, he urged him again to strive to grow in faith and humility.
Parents are the cellarers of the home. They frequently have to deny permissions and purchases. Children will usually accept these refusals if the reasons are presented in a careful and gentle way. "If goods are not available to meet a request, he will offer a kind word in reply, for it is written: A kind word is better than the best gift (Sir 18:17)." I am sure many of you also find yourselves in this same situation at work. There are times when we all have to say no.
The cellarer "should not be prone to greed, nor be wasteful and extravagant with the goods of the monastery, but
The Rule, Chapter 31 59 should do everything with moderation." There is the possibility that a person in this position can become puffed up with pride. He is awed by the power that has been entrusted to him.
Although he is a dispenser of monastery property, he might like to think of himself as the owner of a department store.
One person in this position may tend to possessiveness while another is given to prodigality. We had a cellarer once who refused to give a monk an article of clothing because it was the only one of its kind on the shelf. "That's my exact size/ the monk told the cellarer. "Yes, but if I give it to you, there will be nothing left for the shelf."
St. Benedict advises the cellarer to regard "all utensils and goods of the monastery as sacred vessels of the altar, aware that nothing is to be neglected." St. Benedict wants his monks to take good care of the things belonging to the monastery.
A chalice is not treated carelessly, and the monks should show the same respect for everything else they use. There was a time when, if we broke something, we had to kneel in the refectory with the broken object in our hands. Once a Brother appeared there with a tray of broken dishes. After he had said his prayer of penance for breaking the dishes, he rose to his feet, and in the process he dropped the tray and multiplied the breakage. Another time a monk held out two pieces of a crowbar. He had no reason to be mortified, however, by his destruction of monastery property in this case. We were all impressed by such strength that could break a crowbar in two.
Chapter 31 ends with St. Benedict suggesting that help be given the cellarer if providing for a large community is too much for one man. He wants the cellarer to "calmly perform the duties of his office." And he wants no one to be "disquieted or distressed in the house of God." Every household functions smoothly when the members chip in and help one another.