As Sister Joan Chittister writes – The Rule of Benedict In Benedictine spirituality, work is purposeful and perfecting and valuable….Work is essential to both community development and to justice….Laziness and irresponsibility are forms of injustice and thievery. They take from the people of the earth. We were not put on earth to be cared for. We were put on earth to care for it….but justice works both ways. Benedictine spirituality not only requires that the worker do justice to the community, but that the community do justice to the worker. Give them the help they need, RB 53 says. Give them enough to eat, RB 39. Let them get enough sleep, RB 8. Listen if they say the job is too hard for them, RB 48. “The life questions with which the Rule of Benedict confronts our age become, consequently: What do I expect of the people who work for me? Can they live decently on what I pay them? Do I allow them a life of their own? What are my real expectations of them – a forty-hour week or response to my nod and call? Are they people in my life or only pieces of another kind of machinery? Do I even know their names? It is so easy to become elitist, even in a classless society. But Benedictine spirituality simply defies that kind of life. We’re told to honor one another, whoever they are, RB 57. excerpted from Wisdom Distilled from the Daily |
<--Go back
Home