Commentary on the Rule 3,15

"When you come to table, listen until you leave to what is the custom to read, without disturbance or strife. Let not your mouths alone take nourishment but let your hearts too hunger for the words of God." (St. Augustine, Rule 3,14)

One of the many interesting characteristics of an Augustinian community is the value of common meals. It is in meals that many things are happening. Actually there are many images we can identify, which is very significant in our lives as Augustinians. Let me mention some of those images. Common meals had been an avenue of our mixed emotions. It is a place of place of our joys and sadness. It’s a meeting place of people coming from different regions. It’s a place where people just come and go. It is also a place where we laughed together sometimes so loud and sometimes normal. We sometimes share on the table our corny jokes and even green jokes. We share on the meals our personal backgrounds in life, like our past works and life in high school. We also share our resentments from our professors. We even share our dreams in our sleep. There are also times that in a split of a second silence come in the middle of the meals. We then say “Aba dumaan ang Dios”. We don’t know why but we suddenly laugh all together because of the candid moment. And, it has been a place of some heated debates and arguments. These are just some of the many images of common meals. It is like a rainbow in the sky, which very colorful. However, there is one image of community meal that I’d like to emphasize tonight. Common meal is also a place where we meet people whom we don’t like much. Whether we like it or not we can’t but to share a table with them. Right? So what's your attitude about it?

If you noticed the shape of our tables it is round. It runs like a circular time. It looks like the hands of a clock circling around the 12 digit numbers round and round. We have a 180 degree peripheral view of our brothers. Hindi ba kayo nagsasawa sa mga taong katabi niyo? We can’t but to face that reality. When you come or when we come to the table what is our attitude? This is also the same question asked by Zumkeller in his commentary on the rule. I think you know very well the answer my dear brothers.

Aside from those colorful images of our community meals we are reminded as well of our attitude on how we listen to the readings before meals. The keypoint here is “attitude” my dear brothers. What is then our attitude on this saying. “Let not your mouths alone take nourishment but let your hearts too hunger for the word of God (RULE 3,15).” May be in a form of sharing we can reflect upon this line in our tables. This can also be considered as an image of common meals. Let the round tables be the place of our sharing of faith in our hunger for the word of God. Let it be a place of sharing our spirituality because “this is a dynamic way of being united in our belief which is typical for Augustinian Spirituality. It is a practice not primarily based on theoretical considerations but resulting from a desire for “wholeness”. (Augustinian Spirituality, a source of fruitful Apostolate by Vermeulen, OSA on the Book Augustinian Spirituality and the Charisms of the Augustinians.) However, let this reminder not be limited on the tables inside here but also be extended to the tables of our apostolates because we are the spiritual heirs of an incomparable man as Pope John Paull II told our augustinian family in 1987 during the symposium of Augustinian family in Rome. This is one way of sharing our common legacy as Augustinians. Let us adhere to what Augustine had lived. Augustine once confessed to his community the truth of his service towards his brothers in the community and as well as to the society at large by saying “I do confess that I find it easy to give myself entirely to the love of those who are my intimate friends… In this love I am completely at ease, because in it I experience God, on whom I cast myself confidently and in whom I take my rest… (Ep. 73,10 PL 33, 49-250). Let the tables then be the place of our sharing of faith and hunger for God’s word as we interact with our brothers. Thank you for listening and Think about it.