No one should be excused from kitchen
duty, except on account of sickness or more necessary work, because this is how
merit and charity are acquired. If the
community is large, let the cellarer be excused from the kitchen, and also
those who, as we have said, are engaged in more urgent work; but let the rest
serve one another in charity. At the end
of the week, these same servers should wash the linens and do the Saturday
cleaning. Both the outgoing and the incoming servers should wash the feet of
all.
Doing the dishes may sound like an
awfully minor detail to include in the Rule, but Saint Benedict seems to think
it has special importance. Perhaps that’s
because dishwashing is the one job nobody wants. When dinner is over, the one thing you really
want to do is relax, but Benedict sees this as a unique opportunity to acquire “greater
merit and charity.” And by having the
servers wash the feet of the brethren, he links their job to that of Christ Himself,
who “came not to be served but to serve” (Matt 20:28).
So what seems like a small act of
service is really a big opportunity to cultivate holiness. “Anything
you do whatsoever,” said Saint Paul, do it for the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). So that means you can brush your teeth for the
glory of God; scrub a toilet for the glory of God; change a light bulb for the
glory of God. Whatever you do, you can
do it for the glory of God.
And
yet, if glorifying god were that
easy, wouldn’t there be more saints in the world? Of course you can’t necessarily identify a
saint by his appearance, and there’s no way to measure holiness. But then again, many of the stories of our
saints are full of spectacular episodes which prove their holiness: Saint
Dunstan held a demon by the nose with a pair of jewelry pliers. Saint Joseph of Cupertino prayed so hard he
levitated right out his bedroom window. Saint
Rose of Lima sat up in her coffin in the middle of her own funeral. Saint Anselm, according to Eadmer, his
eleventh-century biographer, predicted that a trout of unusual size would be
served to him for supper—and it was![1] These
are certainly some of the more spectacular, more obvious signs by which our
saints have been identified. And of
course, the more spectacular the sign, the more likely they are to be remembered.
We
have a tendency, therefore, to think that we must work wonders, cast out
demons, raise the dead, levitate, bi-locate, have visions, or make prophesies
to be a saint. But that just isn’t the
case. Saint Therese of Liseaux liked to
say, "Our Lord needs from us neither great deeds nor profound thoughts.
Neither intelligence nor talents. But he cherishes
simplicity" (Story of a Soul).
Or, in the words of Blessed Mother
Theresa: “There are no great deeds. Only small deeds with great love.”
[1] If
you don’t believe me, just read Book I, Section 17 entitled How a trout of unusual size was caught for
his supper as he foretold.
And while you’re at it, be sure to read section 18 entitled How, as he had predicted, a catfish was
unexpectedly brought to his friend. Wow!
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