RB Reflection: 18 July 2008

Chapter 39. The Proper Amount of Food

For the daily meals, whether at noon or in midafternoon, it is enough, we believe, to provide all tables with two kinds of cooked food because of individual weaknesses. In this way, the person who may not be able to eat one kind of food may partake of the other. Two kinds of cooked food, therefore, should suffice for all the brothers, and if fruit or fresh vegetables are available, a third dish may also be added. A generous pound of bread is enough for a day whether for only one meal or for both dinner and supper. In the latter case the cellarer will set aside one third of this pound and give it to the brothers at supper.

Should it happen that the work is heavier than usual, the abbot may decide--and he will have the authority--to grant something additional, provided that it is appropriate, and that above all overindulgence is avoided, lest a monk experience indigestion. For nothing is so inconsistent with the life of any Christian as overindulgence. Our Lord says: Take care that your hearts are not weighed down with overindulgence (Luke 21:34).

Young boys should not receive the same amount as their elders, but less, since in all matters frugality is the rule. Let everyone, except the sick who are very weak, abstain entirely from eating the meat of four-footed animals.

What the sixth century did not know about childhood development could fill entire libraries. So we pass over the business of feeding young boys less.

What strikes me as interesting in this chapter is Benedict's concern for every detail in the daily life of the monastery. It is as if experience has taught him what you do not regulate will come back as a problem. For instance, I have a terrible allergy to almonds. If I eat an almond with the skin still on it, chances are I will die. So my "individual weakness" would have been a plate of almonds on the table. Benedict provided for that by allowing two dishes per table.

I also have to wonder if fresh vegetables were so rare that when they had them they made a third dish on the table; what then were the other two dishes? Stone soup?

Okay, so he was a good administrator and someone should write a book Management According to St. Benedict, but what does this have to do with Lay Cistercians? I suggest that the paragraph about overindulgence is what most applies to us today. In a world where so many are starving to death, it is a sin for us to sit at table and eat until we can barely move. Now, I am a fat man, and confess that I have done this more times than I should have, but that doesn't change the truth of what I am saying. One doesn't need to be fat to overindulge, either.

This chapter calls us to consider our personal stewardship of God's prolific creation, whether it be food, or fossil fuels. Just because we can eat until we can't stuff in another bite, doesn't mean we should. And it does cause a torpor which leads to laziness and a nap. Nutritionist have been telling us for years if you eat until you feel full, you have already eaten too much.

Benedict already knew this.