Fr. Courtès, the superior of the Aix community, was a frugal sickly person, seemingly with a small appetite. He judged the appetite and needs of his community of hard-working and robust young men by his own measures. Eugene intervened in the name of good sense:
Complaints are made in your community that you do not give them enough to eat. In God’s name, don’t measure their stomachs by your own; they have good appetites, give them the wherewithal to satisfy them.
Letter to Hippolyte Courtès, 17 July 1831, EO VIII n 395
There is a part of me that wants to giggle as I think of a group of young men sitting around a table looking at their plates which have a serving of a few peas, a small piece of potato and equally small piece of meat. Like a cartoon, but equally real. Ah, community living!
I remember when I was small my mother telling my sister and myself put on a sweater because she was cold. Even today as I live with two other women there can be a tendency on each of our parts to expect or passively demand that the other two will live by our individual standards and measurements.
The little things that are so very human.
Today is the Feast of All Saints (big and small) and so perhaps it is fitting that this morning’s reflection speaks to me about family and community; how we forget to think of each other in our small daily routines and ways of being. Another way for me to look at how do I, without thinking, measure.
I don’t think this is a concern in this community and I haven’t noticed it as an issue in the communities in the United States.