On the Work of Monks 13–25

Of this weakness of his he says in another place: "We became little ones in your midst, as if a nurse were cherishing her children." For the context of the reading shows this. "For we never," he says, "came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed, God is witness; nor seeking glory from men, either from you or from others, though we could have been a burden to you as apostles of Christ; but we became little ones in your midst, as if a nurse were cherishing her children." So what he says to the Corinthians, that he had the right of his apostleship, as the other apostles also had, a right he testifies he did not use, he says also in this place to the Thessalonians: "though we could have been a burden to you as apostles of Christ," according to what the Lord says: "The worker is worthy of his wages." For what he put above shows that he says it on this account: "nor with a pretext for greed, God is witness." For through what was owed by the Lord's right to good evangelists, who did not preach for this reason but sought the kingdom of God so that all these things might be added to them, others found a pretext; of whom the same apostle says: "For such men do not serve God but their own belly." The apostle wished to cut off this pretext from them, so that he gave up even what was justly owed him. He himself shows this openly in the second letter to the Corinthians, saying that his needs were supplied by other churches. For he had come, as it appears, into such want that necessities were sent to him from distant churches, while he nevertheless accepted nothing of the kind from those among whom he was. "Did I commit a sin," he says, "in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? I robbed other churches, taking pay from them for your service; and when I was with you and was in want, I was a burden to no one. For what I lacked the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied, and in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and will keep so. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows. But what I do and will do is to cut off the pretext of those who want a pretext, so that in what they boast of they may be found as we are." By this pretext, then, which he says here he wants to cut off, he wanted to be understood what he says there: "nor with a pretext for greed, God is witness." And what he said here, "in humbling myself so that you might be exalted," he said in the first letter to the same Corinthians, "To the weak I became weak," and to the Thessalonians, "I became a little one in your midst, as if a nurse were cherishing her children." Therefore attend to what follows. "So," he says, "longing for you, we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and hardship; working night and day, so as not to burden any of you." This, then, is what he said above: "though we could have been a burden to you as apostles of Christ." For he did this trembling, as with a father's and a mother's heart, at the dangers of the weak, lest, stirred by false suspicions, they should hate the gospel as something for sale. So too he says the same in the Acts of the Apostles, when he had sent from Miletus to Ephesus and called the presbyters of the church from there, to whom he said, among many things: "I coveted no one's silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands served my needs and the needs of those who were with me. I have shown you in all things that by so laboring we must help the weak, remembering also the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said: It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Here perhaps someone may say: "If the apostle worked at bodily work to sustain this life, what was that work, and when did he have time both to work and to preach the gospel?" To him I answer: suppose I do not know; still, that he worked bodily and lived in the flesh from it, not using the right the Lord had given the apostles, that in proclaiming the gospel he should live by the gospel, the things said above testify without any doubt. For it is not said in one place or briefly, so that it could be turned and twisted to another meaning by the evasion of anyone, however cunning. Since, then, the opposition of those who contradict is crushed by such great and frequent weights of so great an authority, why do they ask me what work he did or when he did it? One thing I know: that he did not commit thefts, nor was he a burglar or a robber, nor a charioteer or a hunter or an actor, nor a man of shameful gain; but he did innocently and honestly the things that are suited to human uses, as are the works of carpenters, builders, shoemakers, farmers, and the like. For honor itself does not censure what is censured by the pride of those who love to be called honorable but do not love to be so. The apostle, then, would not disdain either to undertake some farm work or to be engaged in the labor of craftsmen. For he who says, "Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God," I do not know whom he could have regarded in this matter. If they say the Jews: the patriarchs fed flocks. If the Greeks, whom we also call pagans: they had even shoemaker philosophers whom they greatly honored. If the church of God: that righteous man, chosen as witness to a virginity in marriage that would always remain, to whom the virgin Mary, who bore Christ, was betrothed, was a carpenter. Whatever of these works, then, men do with innocence and without fraud is good. For the apostle himself also guards against anyone slipping into evil works from the necessity of sustaining life. "Let him who stole," he says, "steal no longer; but rather let him labor with his hands at what is good, so that he may have something to give to him who has need." This, then, is enough to know: that in bodily work too the apostle did what was good.

But when he used to work, that is, in what spaces of time, so as not to be hindered from preaching the gospel, who could discover? Certainly he did not keep silent that he worked in hours of both day and night. But these people who, as if very busy and occupied, inquire about the time of his working, what do they do? Have they themselves filled the lands with the gospel from Jerusalem round about as far as Illyricum? Or have they undertaken whatever barbarian nations still remain to be visited and filled with the peace of the church? We know them to be gathered in a kind of holy society in the greatest leisure. The apostle did a wonderful thing, who, in truth, amid such great anxiety for all the churches, both those already spread and those yet to be spread, which belonged to his care and labor, also worked with his hands; yet for that reason, when he was with the Corinthians and was in want, he was indeed a burden to none of those among whom he was, but what he lacked the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied.

For he himself, on account of such needs of the saints, who, although they obey his precepts to work in quietness and eat their own bread, may yet for many reasons need some supplement of such support, after he had said, teaching and warning, "Now such people we command and beseech in the Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread," foresaw that those who had the means to provide necessities for the servants of God might grow slack on this pretext, and at once added: "But you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good." And when he wrote to Titus, saying, "Send Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on ahead with care, so that they lack nothing," to show from what source they ought to lack nothing, he at once added: "And let our people also learn to take the lead in good works for necessary uses, so that they may not be unfruitful." Timothy too, whom he calls his most true son, he knew to be weak in body, as he shows by warning him not to drink water but to use a little wine for his stomach and his frequent infirmities; because he could not labor at bodily work, lest perhaps, not wishing to be in want of daily food, he should seek some business for himself from those to whom he ministered the gospel, in which the attention of his mind would be entangled (for it is one thing to labor with the body with a free mind, as a craftsman does, if he is not fraudulent and greedy and eager for private gain; but it is another to occupy the mind itself with the cares of gathering money without bodily labor, as are merchants, or stewards, or contractors; for they preside by care, they do not work with their hands, and therefore they occupy their mind itself with anxiety about possessing): Timothy, then, lest he fall into such things, since he could not work with his hands because of the weakness of his body, he exhorts, warns, and consoles thus: "Labor," he says, "as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier for God entangles himself in worldly affairs, so that he may please him who enlisted him. For one who competes in the games is not crowned unless he competes lawfully." Here, lest Timothy should suffer distress, saying, "I cannot dig, I am ashamed to beg," he added: "The farmer who labors ought to be the first to partake of the fruits," according to what he had said to the Corinthians: "Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not get some of the milk of the flock?" So he made the chaste evangelist secure, who did not preach the gospel in order to sell the gospel, but who yet could not provide the necessities of this life for himself with his own hands, so that he would understand that what he took as necessary for himself from those for whom he served as a soldier, as for provincials, and whom he cultivated like a vineyard or tended like a flock, was not begging but a right.

On account, then, of either these occupations of the servants of God or bodily infirmities, which cannot be wholly lacking, the apostle not only permits the needs of the saints to be supplied by good believers, but also most wholesomely exhorts it. For apart from that right which he says he himself did not use, which yet he commands believers to serve, saying, "Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches him"; apart, then, from this right, which he often testifies that preachers of the word have over those to whom they preach, he also commands and exhorts that necessities be contributed by the churches of the gentiles to the saints who had sold all their goods and distributed them and lived at Jerusalem in a holy communion of life, calling nothing their own, who had all things in common, and one soul and heart toward God. Hence that saying to the Romans: "Now," he says, "I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, and they are their debtors. For if the gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they ought also to minister to them in carnal things." This is like what he says to the Corinthians: "If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things?" Likewise in the second letter to the Corinthians: "We make known to you, brothers," he says, "the grace of God that has been given in the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty have abounded in the riches of their simplicity; for according to their means, I bear witness, and beyond their means, they were willing, begging us with many prayers for the grace and fellowship of the ministry that is done for the saints; and not as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and to us by the will of God, so that we urged Titus that, as he had begun, so he would also complete among you this grace too. But as you abound in everything, in faith and word and knowledge and all earnestness and in the love that is from us toward you, see that you abound in this grace also. I do not say this as a command, but proving by the earnestness of others the genuineness of your love too. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor, though he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this I give counsel; for this profits you, who began a year ago not only to do but also to desire. Now, then, complete it in deed as well, so that as there is readiness of will, so there may be completion also out of what each has. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. For it is not that others should have relief and you distress, but for equality at this time, that your abundance may supply their want, so that their abundance may also supply your want, that there may be equality. As it is written: He who had much did not have too much, and he who had little did not lack. But thanks be to God, who put the same earnestness for you in the heart of Titus, for he accepted our appeal, and being more earnest he went out to you of his own accord. And we have sent with him the brother whose praise in the gospel is through all the churches; and not only that, but he has also been appointed by the churches as our traveling companion with this grace that is ministered by us for the glory of the Lord and our readiness, avoiding this, that anyone should blame us in this abundance that is ministered by us. For we provide for what is good not only before God but also before men." In these words it appears how much he wanted it to be not only the care of the holy congregations to minister necessities to God's holy servants, giving counsel on this because it profited those who did it more than those for whom they did it (for something else profited the latter, namely, to use this service of their brothers toward them in a holy way, and not to serve God for this reason, nor to take these things except to supply need, not to feed laziness), but also the blessed apostle says his own care in this ministry, which was now being sent through Titus, was so great that he mentions for this reason a companion of his travels appointed by the churches, a man of God of good report, "whose praise," he says, "in the gospel is through all the churches." And he says that this man was appointed his companion so that he might avoid the reproaches of men, lest without the witness of saints associated in this ministry he should be thought by the weak and ungodly to take for himself and turn into his own pocket what he was receiving to supply the needs of the saints, to be carried by him or distributed to the needy.

And a little later he says: "For concerning the ministry that is done for the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you. For I know your readiness of mind, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up very many. But I have sent the brothers so that our boasting about you may not be made empty in this respect, so that, as I said, you may be ready; lest, if Macedonians come with me and find you unready, we be put to shame, not to say you, in this matter. So I thought it necessary to ask the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance this blessing of yours promised long ago, so that it may be ready as a blessing, not as greed. This, however: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows in blessing will also reap in blessing. Each as he has purposed in his heart, not out of sadness or out of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound in you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything you may abound in every good work (as it is written: He scattered, he gave to the poor, his righteousness remains forever; and he who supplies seed to the sower will also supply bread for food and will multiply your sowing and increase the growing fruits of your righteousness), so that, being enriched in everything for all simplicity, which works through us thanksgiving to God; for the ministry of this service not only supplies what the saints lack, but also makes it abound through the thanksgiving of many to God, glorifying God through the proof of this ministry for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ and for the simplicity of your fellowship toward them and toward all, and in their prayer for you, as they long for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift." With what richness of holy joy the apostle was filled while he speaks of the mutual supplying of the need of Christ's provincials, on the one side in carnal things toward those, on the other in spiritual things toward these, so that he cried out, and as it were brought up from a feast of holy joys, saying: "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"

Just as, then, the apostle, or rather the Spirit of God possessing, filling, and moving his heart, did not cease to exhort the faithful who had such means that nothing should be lacking to the needs of the servants of God who wished to hold a loftier degree of holiness in the church, so as to cut all the bonds of worldly hope and dedicate a free mind to the divine warfare, so they too ought to obey his precepts: to have compassion on the weak, and, not bound by love of private property, to labor with their own hands for the common good, and to obey their superiors without murmuring, so that what those who labor and work at something to get their living by are judged to lack, because of the bodily infirmities of some and because of church occupations or the learning of saving doctrine, may be supplied from the offerings of good believers.

For I want to know what those who are unwilling to work bodily do, and to what they devote their time. "To prayers," they say, "and psalms and reading and the word of God." A holy life indeed, and praiseworthy for the sweetness of Christ; but if we are not to be called away from these, then neither must we eat, nor must food itself be prepared daily so that it can be served and taken. But if the very necessity of weakness compels the servants of God to find time for these things at certain intervals, why do we not also allot some portions of time to observing the apostolic precepts? For one prayer of an obedient man is heard sooner than ten thousand of one who is contemptuous. And they can easily sing divine songs even while working with their hands, and comfort their very labor as with a divine rowing song. Or do we not know to what vanities, and often even to what indecencies of theatrical plays, all workmen give their hearts and tongues, while their hands do not leave their work? What, then, prevents a servant of God, while working with his hands, from meditating on the law of the Lord and singing to the name of the Lord Most High? Provided, of course, that he has times set apart for learning the things he may recall by memory. For this reason too those good works of the faithful in supplying necessities ought not to be lacking, so that the hours given to training the mind, in which those bodily works cannot be done, may not oppress them with want. But those who say they devote themselves to reading, do they not find there what the apostle commanded? What perversity is this, then, to be unwilling to obey reading while wishing to devote oneself to it, and, in order that what is good may be read the longer, to be unwilling to do what is read? For who does not know that each person makes progress the more quickly in reading good things, the more quickly he does what he reads?

But if someone has to give a discourse, and it so occupies him that he has no time to work with his hands, can everyone in the monastery do this, either expound the divine readings to the brothers who come to them from another way of life or argue profitably about some questions? When, then, not all can, why do all want to be at leisure under this pretext? And yet even if all could, they ought to do it in turn, not only so that the rest would not be taken from necessary works, but also because it is enough for one to speak while many listen. Then again, how would the apostle himself have had time to work with his hands, unless he set fixed times for giving out the word of God? For God did not want this hidden from us either. For holy Scripture has not kept silent both of what craft he was a workman and at what times he was free to dispense the gospel. For when the day of departure pressed on him while he was at Troas, even on the first day of the week, when the brothers had gathered to break bread, so great was the attention and so necessary the discussion that the discourse was drawn out until midnight, as if it had slipped their minds that it was not a fast day on that day. But when he was to stay in some place and argued daily, who would doubt that he had hours assigned to this duty? For when he was at Athens, because he had found there most eager inquirers into things, it is written of him thus: "So he argued with the Jews in the synagogue and with the gentiles in the streets, in the market place, every day, with all who were there." For not in the synagogue every day, where the custom was to preach on the sabbath, but "in the market place," it says, "every day," certainly on account of the eager interests of the Athenians. For it goes on: "And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers conversed with him." And a little after it says: "Now the Athenians and the strangers staying there spent their time in nothing else than telling or hearing something new." Let us suppose that the apostle did not work on all those days that he was at Athens; for this reason too his need was supplied from Macedonia, as he says in the second letter to the Corinthians. And yet he could have worked at other hours and at night, for he was so strong in mind and body. But when he had left Athens, let us see what Scripture says. "He argued," it says, "in the synagogue every sabbath"; this at Corinth. At Troas, then, where the discourse was drawn out until midnight by the necessity of his imminent departure, it was the first day of the week, which is called the Lord's day; from which we understand that he was not with Jews but with Christians, since the narrator himself also says that they had gathered to break bread. And this is the best management: that all things be done in order, distributed at their own times, lest, entangled in turbulent confusions, they disturb the human mind.

There too it is said what the apostle worked at. "After this," it says, "he left Athens and came to Corinth. And having found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy, with Priscilla his wife, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome, he went to them, and because they were of the same craft he stayed with them, doing work; for they were tentmakers." If they try to interpret this allegorically, they show how much progress they make in the church's writings, to which they boast of devoting themselves. And certainly the things said above, "Is it only I and Barnabas who do not have the right not to work?" and, "We have not used this right," and, "though we could have been a burden to you as apostles of Christ," and, "working night and day, so as not to burden any of you," and, "The Lord ordained that those who proclaim the gospel should live by the gospel; but I have used none of these things," and the rest of this kind, let them either expound them otherwise, or, if they are pressed by the most brilliant light of truth, let them understand and obey; or, if they either will not or cannot obey, let them at least confess that those who are willing are better, and those who are also able are happier. For it is one thing to allege a real weakness of body or to put forward a false one, and another to be so deceived and so to deceive that, on top of it, greater righteousness seems to be among the servants of God for the very reason that laziness has been able to reign among the ignorant. For one who shows a real weakness of body is to be treated humanely; one who puts forward a false one and cannot be convicted is to be left to God. Yet neither of them sets up a ruinous rule, because a good servant of God both serves his brother who is plainly weak and, when he believes one who deceives, because he does not think him bad, does not imitate him so as to be bad; and if he does not believe him, he thinks him deceitful, and nonetheless does not imitate him. But as for the one who says, "This is true righteousness, that by doing no bodily work we imitate the birds of the sky, since whoever does any such work acts against the gospel," whoever is weak in mind and hears and believes this is to be mourned, not because he is so at leisure, but because he so errs.

Here another question arises. For perhaps someone may say: "What then? Did the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas sin because they did not work? Or did they bring a hindrance to the gospel, since blessed Paul said that he did not use this right so as not to give any hindrance to the gospel of Christ? For if they sinned because they did not work, then they had not received the right not to work, that is, to live by the gospel. But if they had received this right, by the Lord's ordaining that those who proclaimed the gospel should live by the gospel, and saying, 'The worker is worthy of his food' (a right which Paul, spending something more, was unwilling to use), then they certainly did not sin. If they did not sin, they gave no hindrance. For it is not no sin to hinder the gospel. And if this is so," they say, "it is open to us too either to use or not to use this right."

I would solve this question briefly if I said, as I would say justly, that the apostle must be believed. For he knew why in the churches of the gentiles the gospel should not be carried about as something for sale, not blaming his fellow apostles but distinguishing his own ministry; because, without doubt at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, they had so divided the provinces for preaching the gospel among themselves that Paul and Barnabas should go to the gentiles, and they to the circumcision. But that he commanded this to those who did not have such a right, the many things already said make plain. These brothers of ours, however, rashly claim for themselves, as I judge, that they have such a right. For if they are evangelists, I admit, they have it; if they are ministers of the altar, dispensers of the sacraments, they do not so much claim this right for themselves as plainly assert it as theirs.

If at least they had something in this world by which they could easily sustain this life without a trade, which, when converted to God, they distributed to the needy, then their weakness should be both believed and borne. For such people, having been brought up not better, as many think, but, which is the truth, more softly, are generally unable to bear the labor of bodily work. There were perhaps many such at Jerusalem. For it is also written that they sold their estates and laid the prices of them at the feet of the apostles, to be distributed to each as there was need. Because they were found near at hand and were useful to the gentiles, who were being called from far off from the worship of idols, according to what was said, "Out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," the apostle called Christians from among the gentiles their debtors. "They are their debtors," he says, and he added why: "For if the gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they ought also to minister to them in carnal things." But now there come to this profession of the service of God, for the most part, people both from the condition of slaves, or freedmen, or those freed by their masters for this purpose or about to be freed, and from country life, and from the practice of crafts and common labor, brought up the more happily, surely, the more hardily. If they were not admitted, it would be a grave fault; for many of that number have proved truly great and worthy of imitation. For this is why "God chose the weak things of the world to put to shame the strong; and he chose the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise; and the base things of the world and the things that are not, as though they were, so that the things that are might be brought to nothing, so that no flesh might boast before God." This devout and holy thought, then, causes even such to be admitted who bring no proof of a life changed for the better. For it is not apparent whether they have come with the purpose of serving God, or whether, fleeing a poor and laborious life, they wanted to be fed and clothed without work, and, moreover, honored by those by whom they used to be despised and trodden down. Such people, then, since they cannot excuse themselves from working on grounds of bodily weakness (for they are refuted by the habit of their past life), cover themselves with the shade of a bad discipline, so as to scheme to pervert the apostolic precepts from a badly understood gospel: truly "birds of the sky," but by raising themselves on high through pride; and "grass of the field," but by thinking carnally.