Treatises on Various Subjects

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THE WORK OF MONKS Chapter 1 liT WAS VERY FITTING, 0 holy brother Aurelius, for me to accede to your request with a devotedness the greater in proportion as I realized the more clearly who was ordering me through you. For, our Lord Jesus Christ dwelling within you inspired the solicitude of your paternal and fraternal charity in regard to whether or not approval should be given to those monks, our sons and brethren, who fail to obey the precept of the Apostle, St,. Paul: 'If any man will not work, neither let him eat.'l Then, through the instrumentality of your will and tongue, He bade me write something to you on this subject. May He assist me as I undertake this work in obedience, so that I may understand that, in this service of fruitful labor, I am obeying Him in accordance with the ability which He has given me. (2) In the first place, we must consider the argument of those monks who do not wish to work. Then, if we find that their contention is groundless, we must plan our discussion to correct them and to fulfill our episcopal duty. They assert that when the Apostle says: 'If any man will not work, neither let him eat,' he does not refer to bodily labor at which farmers or artisans work. For, they maintain, St. Paul's attitude cannot be in contradiction to the Gospel where our 1 2 Thess. !J.lo. 331 332 SAINT AUGUSTINE Lord Himself says: 'Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life a greater thing than the food, and the body than the clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they? But which of you by being anxious about it can add to his stature a single cubit? And as for clothing, why are you anxious? Consider how the lilies of the field grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which flourishes today but tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more you, o you of little faith! Therefore, do not be anxious, saying: "What shall we eat" or "What shall we drink?" or "What are we to put on?" (for after all these things th·~ Gentiles seek); for your Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be given you besides. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow will have anxieties of its own. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.'2 They say: 'Behold the passage where the Lord bids us to be free from care in regard to our food and clothing. How, then, can the Apostle, opposing the direction of the Lord, command us to be solicitous about what we are to eat and drink and wherewith we are to be clothed and thus burden us with the arts, the cares, and the labors of workmen?' They insist, therefore, that we ought to understand the passage: 'If any man will not work, neither let him eat,'3 as referring to spiritual works concerning which the Apostle says in another passage : 'God has given to each one to serve. I have planted, 2 Mati. 6.25-34. 3 2 Thess. 3.10. THE WORK OF MONKS 333 Apollos watered, but God has given the growth . . . ' And a little .later: 'Each will receive his own reward according to his labor. For we are God's helpers, you are God's tillage, God's building. According to the grace of God which has been given to me, as a wise builder, I laid the foundation.'· They [who do not wish to work] argue that, since the Apostle worked by planting, watering, building, and placing foundations , so he who does not wish to work in like fashion should not eat. For, they ask, what profit is there in a spiritual repast, that is, in feasting on the word of God, if, as a result , one does...