Regula, caput XXIII
One Measure for All
Christ teaches that the measure of food, set with discretion, must be the same for the noble and the lowly alike.
Christ's ruling here is that the measure of food, set with discretion, should be the same for the noble and the lowly alike.
Tempering the Body, Not Destroying It
Christ explains that holy ones afflicted their bodies not out of hatred but to temper them for God's service, and that bodily suffering does not earn the kingdom apart from mercy.
My holy ones didn't afflict their bodies because they hated them, but so they might temper them for the service of their God, for which they were made; nor did they believe that through its affliction they were worthy of my kingdom without my mercy, because even if a person were to kill his body a hundred times, he still wouldn't be worthy by his own merits to share the kingdom with me, if I were to proceed against him with my justice.1 Therefore this is dear and acceptable to me: that a person should indulge his body like a weak beast of burden, just so it can hold up in my service, not so it runs to luxury or dissolves in pleasures, but so he meets its needs with discretion, and only as weak nature requires.
An Equal Measure, Proven by Temptation
Because individuals struggle to set their own limits, an equal measure should be established for all, and its strength is proven through tested weakness, patience, and discretion.
So then, because everyone has a hard time keeping to a limit, an equal measure should be established for all—to the noble and the lowborn, the poor and the rich—so they have a greater opportunity for good. Its strength will be known by the one who had learned his own weaknesses through temptation, because measure is learned through testing, and is brought to perfection by patience and discretion.
Read the original Latin
Christus statuit hic, quod mensura ciborum cum discrecione taxata tam nobilibus quam ignobilibus equalis tribuatur.
"Sancti mei non ideo affligebant corpus suum, quia odiebant illud, sed vt temperarent illud ad seruicium Dei sui, ad quod factum erat; nec ideo, quia credebant se ex eius affliccione dignos absque misericordia mea ad regnum meum, quia, eciam si homo cencies occideret corpus suum, non tamen ex meritis suis esset dignus habere mecum regnum, si cum iusticia mea procederem contra eum. Ideo hoc michi carum est et acceptabile, vt homo sic indulgeat corpori suo tamquam iumento infirmo, prout stare potest in seruicio meo, non vt luxurietur vel deliciis dissoluatur sed necessitati cum discrecione satisfaciat et prout natura infirma petit. Ergo, quia difficiliter omnes seruant modum, ideo vt occasionem maiorem boni habeant, mensura omnibus constituatur equalis, nobili et ignobili, pauperi et diuiti, cuius virtutem nouerit ille, qui in se infirmitates temptacione didicerat, quia mensura probacione addiscitur et paciencia et discrecione consumatur."
Notes
- 1 ↩The form 'cencies' is uncertain; translated here as 'a hundred times' (centies), the most plausible intended sense in context.
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