Accept what you have been given.
The Rule tells us that none of the brothers are to accept a cell other than that which has been given to him. If we take this strictly, then we would consider simply that we are to accept and live happily in whatever room we have been given in our house: children should not argue with their parents over which room they have been assigned; if we share a house with roommates, we should gladly accept even the smallest bedroom in the house; and if we are away at college and living in the dorms, we should carry on without complaint, even if we have a snoring roommate who uses the floor as a laundry basket. These things may be a part of what the Rule is attempting to teach us--a humble acceptance of whatever living conditions we have been provided, and confidence that God always has us in His care--however, if this were all that it is trying to offer, then that would have little meaning for most of us.
If we recall, however, it can be said that the cell is the one thing and space that that the brothers and sisters have been given as their own. They do not even claim to own anything inside the cell, but it is the space, the silence, the intimacy and the retreat in the cell that belongs to them. If they own nothing else, the time they have within their cell is theirs such that when St. Albert tells them to occupy what they have been given, he is saying, Accept what has been given to you and do not exchange it with anyone else, except when given permission by the prior. Whether it is the meal that is set before you--which the Rule will specifically address later--a car that you have to drive, an apartment which is available to rent, a Christmas gift, a book someone has recommended that you read, or something that you may have been given as an inheritance, accept what has been given to you.
To accept what we have been given means that we are allowing ourselves to enter into the work of God’s Kingdom and to fully participate in the work that is taking place. This is acceptance: not to surrender our will or hope for the future, but to participate and become a part of the invitation we have received; not to separate ourselves, but to engage with others and the time we have been given; it us not our approval of things, but our acknowledgment of their reality. It is a movement to find God and bear confidence that in this present moment He has come to me and is asking something of me that I can give.
If we recall, however, it can be said that the cell is the one thing and space that that the brothers and sisters have been given as their own. They do not even claim to own anything inside the cell, but it is the space, the silence, the intimacy and the retreat in the cell that belongs to them. If they own nothing else, the time they have within their cell is theirs such that when St. Albert tells them to occupy what they have been given, he is saying, Accept what has been given to you and do not exchange it with anyone else, except when given permission by the prior. Whether it is the meal that is set before you--which the Rule will specifically address later--a car that you have to drive, an apartment which is available to rent, a Christmas gift, a book someone has recommended that you read, or something that you may have been given as an inheritance, accept what has been given to you.
To accept what we have been given means that we are allowing ourselves to enter into the work of God’s Kingdom and to fully participate in the work that is taking place. This is acceptance: not to surrender our will or hope for the future, but to participate and become a part of the invitation we have received; not to separate ourselves, but to engage with others and the time we have been given; it us not our approval of things, but our acknowledgment of their reality. It is a movement to find God and bear confidence that in this present moment He has come to me and is asking something of me that I can give.
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