Benedict considered the church described in Acts 4 as he penned this chapter of The Rule. This principle did not presume that austerity or deprivation was a virtue to be pursued. Needs are to be met. Neither did Benedict promote some communal equality where each citizen shared the same of everything. Benedict cited the Book of Acts, “Distribution was made to each one as he had need.”[1] This is an important distinction. Each of us have different needs. There are needs for the sick and healthy. Needs for young and old. Needs for various vocations and interests. Such needs are not to be curtailed or dismissed. Needs are not to be hoarded or rationed as instruments of power or prestige. Needs are not to be met (or remain unmet) due to favoritism, but needs are to be met with the provisions needed for the sake of peace. Likewise, the attitude of the care receiver is humility rather than privilege because of the display of kindness.
This lesson is especially applicable considering the contemporary cultural crisis. Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option, notes Western Culture has drifted from orderly structures bounded by rules of restraint and contends that desire fulfilled is the place of freedom and the individual must define desire for itself.[2] The result of such a social drift leads everyone as the lord of their lives, much like the culture that Benedict discovered in Rome. The very culture that he rejected and ultimately compelled him to establish new communities bound by rules of humility and mutual accountability. Here, this simple direction to judiciously provide for and humbly receive according to one’s needs are the seeds of durable, healthy community that reflects the heart of Jesus’ example to the disciples. Here, St. Benedict seeks to balance need and provision. Here is the motivation that drives the Benedictine spirit to seek justice for all according to their needs rather than complaining that others have more than me. Humility and grumbling are unable to coexist. So, The Rule demands that grumbling be pulled out at the root and cast far away.
—-
[1] Timothy Fry Benedict, RB 1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in English(1982), 57.
[2] Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation(2017), 43.
