CHAPTER 34
The Rule, Chapter 34 63 and use them. Even if my nose had been running as I made the request.
Failure to practice personal poverty is debilitating to the individual monk, and so is the accumulation of communal wealth. I have been made aware of my responsibility to practice poverty by the following remark which I have heard on more than one occasion: "You monks profess poverty and we lay people live it."
Although St. Benedict does not believe in excess, neither does he want his followers to live in abject poverty. He is sensible. His model of ownership is found in the Acts of the Apostles: "A// things should be the common possession of all, as it is written, so that no one presumes to call anything his own
(Acts 4:32)." People who live in community use what they hold in common.
There may be members of your own household who have to be reminded that a particular item— the car or the telephone— does not belong to him or her personally. It is for the use of the whole family. Chapter 33 also advises all of us about the procurement of things that are needed and things that are not, what is essential and what is extravagant. It says something about sharing, something about being satisfied with what is provided for us.
CHAPTER 34
Distribution of Goods According to Need St. Benedict quotes from the same chapter of Acts as he did in the previous chapter of the Rule: "It is written: Distribution was made to each one as he had need (Acts 4:35)." He is telling the monks their lifestyle should be like that of the early Christians. "The whole group of believers was united, heart and
64 The Rule, Chapter 34 soul; no one claimed for his own use anything that he had, as everything they owned was held in common" (Acts 4:32-33).
Some monks, however, require more goods for reasons of occupation or health or other legitimate needs. St. Benedict does not look upon this as ' 'favoritism' ' but as ' 'consideration of weaknesses/ The modern Benedictine whose needs exceed those of a confrere's is not inclined to think of himself as a weak human being. When he asks the abbot for a computer, it is efficiency and saving time that are on his mind. Making use of the inventions in our technological age is surely not a sign of weakness, he thinks. After all, St. Benedict wants his monks to be practical.
In the beginning of my monastic life, we had no television set. Now we have four. No one had an electric typewriter for his personal use. Now there are a number of them, all under service contract. And in those days who needed a blow dryer for his hair? Certainly not the novices. Their heads were shorn.
Cassette players, video machines, computers, microwave ovens— they've all come on the market since I entered the monastery, and they've all been deemed necessary by us monks.
Yet St. Benedict reminds us again that our personal needs are the result of weakness. "Whoever needs less should thank
God and not be distressed, but whoever needs more should feel humble because of his weakness, not self-important because of the kindness shown him. In this way all the members will be at peace."
We live in peace with our modern gadgets and see nothing wrong in this. Things began to change with the invention of the printing press. If they had not, we would still be copying texts by hand in the scriptorium. A monastery today needs machines. St. Benedict, in the sixth century, said that a monastery should have "all necessities" within it (ch. 66). Times change and so do needs. But some monks have greater needs than others. The monk who needs more must be cautious
The Rule, Chapter 34 65 about weakening his practice of personal poverty. Living in luxury is an inexcusable weakness for the monk.
Although every monk professes poverty, monasteries are not inhabited by poor people. The corporate wealth of monasteries has come under attack throughout history. The Protestant Reformers were critical of the part our wealth played in the decline of morals and discipline in monastic life. So were two of their contemporaries who did not break with the Church of Rome, Erasmus and St. Thomas More. St. Benedict's insistence that a monastery should be self-sufficient was often carried to extremes when monks procured more than they needed. Although we are more careful about what we accumulate nowadays, we still give the impression of being well off.
The truth of the matter is that monks live comfortably, even in those monasteries that are known for their austerity. The carpet and furniture in our lobby were new when Dorothy Day visited my monastery. She made the observation that "No poor man will be at ease coming to your front door." I knew we had just been reprimanded by a saint, but even Dorothy Day, who was espoused to a life of poverty, often had to admit that she and her Catholic Workers were better off materially than the people they fed and clothed.
Fortunately, there are always monks living among us who provide an example of needing less. I can think of Brother
Robert who had been a successful farmer before entering the monastery at the age of fifty. His room was bare: a bed, a small table, a chair and a number ten tin can into which he spat tobacco juice. When he died, it didn't take long to dispose of the articles in his room. Sometimes the infirmarian spends days cleaning out a room from which a monk has departed for eternity, leaving everything behind.
In his goodness, St. Benedict realizes that some of us have needs that merit special attention. But he says to me and to you, be certain that your needs are really valid. Don't go to