The Monastery

Once upon a time there was a contemplative monastery filled with good monks.

The monastery enjoyed an admirable reputation and the monks were revered as holy men of God. There was one extraordinary brother among the monks who knew and loved sacred scripture very much. In fact, he was a noted scripture scholar. He knew the Bible so well and so thoroughly that he always answered every question he was asked by quoting from the Bible.

The time passed by and soon the good brothers became irritated by the way their Bible brother responded to questions. In a short while the irritation grew, and the good brethern were sure they were going crazy. There were murmurings of frequent headaches, stomach aches and heated whisperings among the monks.

To the outsider everything seemed quite serene. The abbot, who was well known for his saintly ways, decided to put a stop to this. He greatly desired to save the mortal bodies and immortal souls of these desperate monks. He knew what the trouble was, for there had been frequent knockings at his door.

He called the Bible brother into his office and said to him, “From this day forward, under holy obedience, I forbid you to answer a question by quoting from scripture.”

The Bible brother smiled, bowed, and did what he was told without question. A few months had passed, and one day the brother cook found a jackass in the refectory. He tried to lead it out but to no avail. The other monks tried without success. Each monk tried alone, then they banded together. They had exhausted all possible ideas. The jackass remained in the refectory. This caused quite a quandary The abbot could not contain himself. He found the Bible brother and said,

I lift your obedience from you this one time. Please describe for me, through scripture, the problem that is now in our refectory.

The Bible brother smiled, and said without hesitation,

He came unto his own and his own received him not.

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Follow Carolyn Humphreys, O.C.D.S., at her blog, Contemplative Christianity.