Reverence for... Tools??!!

In recent times, tools have been viewed as dehumanizing implements... If people work in a factory long enough, they begin to feel like an extension of a machine, a cog in an industrial process where there is little room for kindness or any other human emotion... This dehumanizing effect of machinery was a theme I encountered again and again studying nineteenth and twentieth century literature.

So it was very strange to discover, in Benedict's Way, a modern day summary of a 6th century manual on communal monastic living, that St. Benedict advocated REVERENCE for implements - TOOLS!














The concept was very strange to me...
Reverence for life? Yes!
Reverence for nature? Nature inspires reverence!
Reverence for God? Of course!
Reverence for tools? Really? What a strange idea!

But there it is... "Let the tools of the monastery and its whole property be regarded as if they were the sacred vessels of the altar." (RB 31:10) "Allow no one to treat the monastery's tools and implements in a slovenly or careless way." (RB 32:4)

Why?!

Was it because, in poor monastic communities, tools were rare and expensive? To last longer, they needed to be well cared for. But to be viewed on equal terms as sacred vessels used in worship?! Isn't that excessive?

Or is there more to it? Is it because all that we do is an act of worship - if we believe that God has put us in the world for a purpose?!

If so, "the things we touch (and the people we touch) are to be touched reverently" (Benedict's Way, page 91).

Food for thought!














So today, as I tackle this somewhat boring job of raking dead branches from my flower beds, how would I do it differently if I viewed it as important, sacred work?... (More slowly and thoughtfully, perhaps - not trying to finish as much as trying to do it well?)














And what about this computer - do I treat it as a "sacred vessel" as I write my blog?

Or is all this too much of a stretch for me? (Old habits are hard to break!!)