July 8

Chapter 31

The Rule of St. Benedict July 8

Perhaps a modern equivalent to the role of the cellarer is that of the business manager in an office.  It is the person who oversees the maintenance of supplies for everyone, of all that is needed for the physical sustenance of the work at hand.  But there's a twist in our Father Benedict's instructions for the cellarer that one would not expect to find in the job description of a business manager.

St. Benedict writes that the cellarer is to "take the greatest care of the sick, of children, of guests and the poor . . ."  It is not the efficiency and profitability of the monastery that is to shape this person's priorities, but precisely the opposite.  The steward of community resources is to "take the greatest care of" those who are a drag on the very systems that provide the resources.

This is a picture of the "beloved community" spoken of by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. wherein property is in the service of life, not life in the service of property.  This is the radical reorientation in Jesus' teaching around the issues of true greatness and power wherein the greatest is the least of all, without any power and without any resources of her own.

Br. Chad 2012