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Longer Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 21: The Necessary Arrangements for Sitting and Reclining at the Time of Lunch and…
Since we have a commandment of the Lord, Who in every place accustoms us to humility, that we should choose the lowest seat when we recline at lunch,2 the man who strives to do everything according to the commandment must of necessity not fail to observe this order. Should there be visitors from the world at table with us, it is fitting that we should become an example to them in this respect, that they should not be puffed up or seek the pre-eminence. But where all come together with the same object, so that at every opportunity they give a proof of their humility, it is incumbent on each according to the Lord’s commandment to choose the lowest seat; yet to push contentiously to secure it is to be reprobated as destructive of good order and the cause of confusion. And to be unwilling to give way to one another and to struggle for this will make us as bad as those who strive for the pre-eminence. Wherefore in this matter, carefully noting and practising what is fitting, we should leave the order of sitting down in the hands of him to whom it has been entrusted, as the Lord warned us when He said that the ordering of these things pertained to the master of the house. For in so doing we shall bear with one another in love, doing all things decently and in order; and we shall not show by our stubborn and vehement contradiction that we are practising humility to impress the multitude and win popular favour, but rather shall achieve genuine humility by our obedience. For contradiction is a greater proof of pride than occupying a chief seat, when we have taken it in obedience to orders.
Notes
- ἀρίστων ἢ δείπνων. Does B. mean that they had one meal or two? The title is not original, and the answer itself only speaks of ἀρίστοις. B. 136 shows that a monk late for lunch (τὸ ἄριστον) went hungry till next day. Ep. ii. 6 speaks of one meal only. Benedict prescribed a single meal for half the year, mid-September to Lent, taken about 2.30 p.m. Undoubtedly B. aims at one meal only, but with considerable latitude for concessions. See F. 19 where ill-health or hard work entitles a monk to special treatment. The Egyptian Coenobia had two meals a day, see Ladeuze, Le Cénobitisme Pakhomien, p. 298 f. The midday meal in Serm. Asc. 322A is at the 6th hour.
- See Lk. xiv. 10.