RB Reflection: 10 July 2008

Chapter 21. The Tools and Goods of the Monastery.

The goods of the monastery, that is, its tools, clothing or anything else, should be entrusted to brothers whom the abbot appoints and in whose manner of life he has confidence. He will, as he sees fit, issue to them the various articles to be cared for and collected after use. The abbot will maintain a list of these, so that when the brothers succeed one another in their assigned tasks, he may be aware of what he hands out and what he receives back.

Whoever fails to keep the things belonging to the monastery clean or treats them carelessly should be reproved. If he does not amend, let him be subjected to the discipline of the rule.

Good tools have never been cheap. I recently bought a good Stanley chisel and the cost surprised me. It was only 5/8" wide, but I paid a goodly price for it. So too the tools of the monastery back when they numbered the years in three digits (649) and not four (1066). In fact, they had to make their tools. Treating a tool roughly, breaking it, or not cleaning it properly, was not only a breach of manners, it showed crass disrespect. To this day, if you borrow a paintbrush and do not clean it but return it full of dried paint, the owner is likely to never allow you to touch, much less borrow, another tool again. That is an easy commonality we share with the sixth century.

As Lay Cistercians of Gethsemani, what are the tools entrusted to us? The monks teach us, and their teachings are tools that we may use when we re-enter the secular world. When we return to the monastery again, in what condition are the tools we left with? Does the tool of purity return crusted in adultery? Or what about humility, does it come back broken by pride?

May God bring us altogether to everlasting life.