However, the brethren must accept bodily services as well when they are rendered by such as seem to hold the highest positions in the brotherhood. For the principle of humility both teaches the greater to serve and shows the lesser that to be served is not unbecoming. For the example of the Lord leads us to this conclusion, since He did not disdain to wash the feet of His disciples and they did not dare to withstand Him in this. Moreover Peter, who at first from excess of reverence did not accept His ministrations, at once submitted when he learned the peril that would arise if he were disobedient. The subordinate therefore need have no fear of weakening his ideal of humility if he ever accepts services from a Superior. For the service is often rendered to teach him and give him an effective example, rather than because of any urgent need. So let him show humility by submission and imitation, and let him not display pride and arrogance by resisting under the pretext of humility. For gainsaying is a mark of self-will and lack of discipline; it proves that a man is puffed up and contemptuous rather than humble and obedient in all things. Wherefore it is necessary to obey him that said: “Forbearing one another in love.”
XXXII. — How we Should Behave towards Relations according to the Flesh
Those who have been once received into the brotherhood must not be allowed by the Superior to be led away by any distraction: they must not leave the brethren and lead a life free from observation, under pretext of visiting relations, nor must they be permitted to have the anxieties of looking after their kinsmen according to the flesh. For the Scripture absolutely forbids the words “mine” and “thine” to be used in the brotherhood. “For” it says “all that believed had one heart and soul; and not one of them said that aught of the things he possessed was his own.” So let a man’s parents or brothers according to the flesh, if they live in godly fashion, be cared for by all the brethren, as fathers or friends of all. “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven,” saith the Lord, “he is my brother and sister and mother.” The care of such we judge should devolve upon the Superior of the brotherhood. But if our relations are involved in the life of the world, we who are resolved to live a godly life waiting on the Lord without distraction have nothing in common with them. For besides the fact that we confer no benefit on them, we fill our own life with tumults and disturbances and bring upon ourselves occasions of sinning. It follows moreover that we must not receive those who despise the commandments of God and set at nought the work of godliness even when they come to visit their former friends; for they love not the Lord Who said: “He that loveth me not, keepeth not my words.” “And what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever?” It is most necessary to take pains in every way to remove from those who are still practising virtues, occasions of sinning, the greatest of which is the memory of their former life; lest the Scripture experience should be theirs—“they turned in their hearts towards Egypt”—which generally happens when there is constant conversation with relations according to the flesh. But generally speaking we must not permit either relative or stranger to converse with the brethren unless we are persuaded in regard to them, that they frame their discourse with a view to the edifying and perfecting of souls. But if it be necessary to speak to those who have been once admitted let it be left to those who have been entrusted with the gift of utterance, since they have power to speak with knowledge and to hear in a way that builds up faith. For the apostle plainly teaches that not all have the power of speech, but that the gift belongs to but few, when he says: “For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge,” and elsewhere: “that he may be able to exhort with sound knowledge, and to convict the gainsayers.”
1 As well as spiritual. 2 Eph. iv. 2 f.
3 Acts iv. 32 hv yao mévtmy for tod 8% mANDoug... jy **.
4 In the adjoining hospital or other part of the complex of monastic buildings.
b.@.O 4 118
XXXIII. — The Manner of Intercourse with the Sisters
He who has once forsworn marriage will, needless to say, forswear much more those cares which the apostle says distract the married man, namely, how he may please his wife, and will purge himself by every means from every care to please women, fearing the condemnation of Scripture: “God hath scattered the bones of the men-pleasers.” Accordingly he will not even consent to meet a man in order to please him; but if need demands, he will arrange a meeting for the sake of the service which according to God’s command every man has a right to expect from his neighbour. Such meetings are not to be allowed to anyone who wishes, nor is every time and place fitting for them. But if we mean according to the precept of the apostle to be without offence both to Jews and Greeks and to the Church of God, and to do all things decently and in order and with a view to edifying, then it is necessary that person, time, occasion, and place be carefully and fittingly chosen. By such precautions every shadow of evil suspicion will be banished. But gravity and restraint will be required to be manifest in every respect in those who are chosen to see one another and take counsel about what is pleasing to God both as regards bodily needs and the care of souls. Let there be not less than two on each side; for one person is readily exposed to suspicion, to put it no stronger, and is powerless to confirm a conversation, as indeed the Scripture says that at the mouth of two or three every word is established. There should not be more than three lest the zeal for industry undertaken because of the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ be impaired.
If there should be a need for some others of the brotherhood to give or receive a private message, they must not go to the interview in person. But let selected senior brethren deliver their message to selected senior sisters, and so let the need for speech be met, through their mediation. And let the same good order be preserved not only in the relations of women with men and men with women, but also in those of persons of the same sex. In such cases besides practising the general piety and gravity, let them be discreet both in questions and answers, and trustworthy and prudent in managing conversation, fulfilling the words: “He shall dispose his words with judgment,” so that both those who have entrusted their business to them have their requirements fulfilled, and a clear understanding is reached on the matters discussed.
As for the sisters’ bodily needs, let certain other brethren be responsible for these, chosen after due examination, of some age and grave in demeanour and character, so as not to rouse evil suspicions in the conscience of any. “For why is my liberty judged by another’s conscience?”
1 Ps. liii. 5. 2 Much more will he avoid a woman!
1 Mt. xii. 50 wor} for movhon, obtog for adtéc.
2 Jn. xiv. 24. 3 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. 4 Of. Num. xiv. 4. ° For spiritual gifts in the Coenobia see Intr. p. 42f.; of. 392p. 81 Cor, xii.8:? Tit. 1. 9 év cH Sy. 88. for év tH 88. rH Sy.
8 See Intr. p. 37 for B.’s system of double monasteries.
3 See 1 Cor. x. 32. 4 See Mt. xviii. 16.
> This must not be taken as an excuse for getting off work.
6 moecBitepor... mpecButéoatc. See F. 35 and Intr. p. 40.
Pass Cxii: De
8 Priests visited the sisterhood for celebrating the Eucharist and hearing confessions; other monks would do heavy field work, repairs to buildings etc.; cf. B. 154 and see Intr. p. 38.
XXXLY.
XXXIV. — The Character of those who Administer the Necessities of Life in the Brotherhood
Among those who distribute the necessities of life within the monastery there should by all means be some in each rank who can imitate those men in the Acts who did what is there said, namely: “Distribution was made unto each, according as any one had need”; men who will bestow much thought to be considerate and long-suffering to all, and not to incur suspicion of favouritism or partiality towards any, according to the commandment of the apostle who said: “Doing nothing by partiality”; nor of contentiousness, which the same writer rejects as appropriate in Christians, saying: “But if any man seemeth to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the Churches of God.” The result of such conduct is that they deprive those with whom they have a contention of the necessities of life, and give an excess to those to whom they are partial. In the one case we get hatred of the brethren, in the other favouritism, which is to be specially condemned because through it the loving unity of the brotherhood is torn asunder, and in its place enter evil suspicions, jealousies, strifes, and shrinkings from work.
Wherefore on account of what has been said, and for many other similar reasons, it is essential that those who distribute necessaries to the brotherhood should be free absolutely from favouritism and contention. Indeed they ought to be conscious of such a disposition in themselves and to show such zeal—both they and those that perform the other works for the service of the brethren—as if they were serving not men but the Lord Himself, Who of His great goodness reckons as done unto Himself the honour and zeal shown to those who are dedicated to Him, and promises in return an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. For He says: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me.” And on the other hand we must recognise the peril of negligence, remembering the words: “Cursed is he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently.” Because not only are they ejected from the kingdom, but also they receive the horrible and fearful sentence of the Lord pronounced against such men: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.” But if they who give the care and service find so great gain from their zeal and expect so great condemnation from neglect, how must those who receive the service strive to prove themselves worthy of the title of brethren of the Lord? As the Lord teaches, saying: “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, he is alike my brother and sister and mother.”
For whoever has not made the will of God his aim all through his life, so that in health he displays the labour of love by his diligence in the works of the Lord, and in sickness he shows all patience and long-suffering with joy, he is in danger—first and foremost because he is alienated from the Lord and the lot of his brethren, having cut himself off because he does not do the will of God; and secondly, because he dares to partake unworthily of the things prepared for the Saints. Wherefore it is necessary in this also to remember the apostle’s words: “Working together with him we intreat also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain”; and necessary too that those who have been called to be brethren of the Lord insult not such grace of God nor betray so great a dignity by neglecting the will of God, but rather hearken to the same apostle as he says: “I the prisoner in the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye were called.”