|
MOSES: Both duties must be observed in the same way and with equal
care: for we ought most scrupulously to preserve the proper allowance of
food for the sake of our abstinence, and in like manner out of charity to
show courtesy and encouragement to any of the brethren who may arrive;
because it is absolutely ridiculous when you offer food to a brother, nay,
to Christ Himself, not to partake of it with him, but to make yourself a
stranger to his repast. And so we shall keep clear of guilt on either hand
if we observe this plan; viz., at the ninth hour to partake of one of the
two biscuits which form our proper canonical allowance, and to keep back
the other to the evening, in expectation of something like this, that if
any of the brethren comes to see us we may partake of it with him, and so
add nothing to our own customary allowance: and by this arrangement the
arrival of our brother which ought to be a pleasure to us will cause us no
inconvenience: since we shall show him the civilities which courtesy
requires in such a way as to relax nothing of the strictness of our
abstinence. But if no one should come, we may freely take this last biscuit
as belonging to us according to our canonical rule, and by this frugality
of ours as a single biscuit was taken at the ninth hour, our stomach will
not be overloaded at eventide, a thing which is often the case with those
who under the idea that they are observing a stricter abstinence put off
all their repast till evening; for the fact that we have but recently taken
food hinders our intellect from being bright and keen both in our evening
and in our nocturnal prayers, and so at the ninth hour a convenient and
suitable time has been allowed for food, in which a monk can refresh
himself and so find that he is not only fresh and bright during his
nocturnal vigils, but also perfectly ready for his evening prayers, as his
food is already digested.
With such a banquet of two courses, as it were, the holy Moses feasted
us, showing us not only the grace and power of discretion by his present
learned speech, but also the method of renunciation and the end and aim of
the monastic life by the discussion previously held; so as to make clearer
than daylight what we had hitherto pursued simply with fervour of spirit
and zeal for God but with closed eyes, and to make us feel how far we had
up till then wandered from purity of heart and the straight line of our
course, since the practice of all visible arts belonging to this life
cannot possibly stand without an understanding of their aim, nor can it be
taken in hand without a clear view of a definite end.
|
|