Chapter 31 of the Rule of St. Benedict concerns the role of the cellarer, the one who handles the supplies of the monastery and who distributes them according to need. St. Benedict writes, "As cellarer of the monastery, there should be chosen from the community someone who is wise, mature in conduct, temperate... not proud, excitable, offensive, dilatory, or wasteful, but God-fearing, and like a parent to the whole community." That community included guests, the ill, and the poor. Recognizing that not every request made of the cellarer could be fulfilled, the cellarer "should not annoy the members," but respond with respect and humility, for the cellarer would held accountable, not only to the community, but to God.
Governments, and the rest of us, would do well to consider this role.
"Have they no knowledge,
all the ignorant,
who devour people and nations
as if they were bread,
and never call upon Love?"
Psalm 14
Psalms for Praying, Nan C. Merrill
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