The rich landlord gave a sumptuous dinner to His friends and acquaintances and to a large number of people whom He invited to the dinner so as to enlarge His circle of friends and acquaintances. An infinite quantity of spiritual foods of unimaginable and unthinkable quality was provided for guests on the spiritual table. At the end of the dinner, the guests were generously given spiritual gifts. When the invited guests of honor had left, the Landlord looked outside the wedding hall and saw at the doors a crowd of hungry beggars who would have been glad to enjoy the scraps that remained after the wonderful the dinner. The most merciful Lord told the servants to stop clearing the table He invited the beggars to come in, notwithstanding their filth and rags which were quite out of keeping with the magnificence of the wedding hall, and He set before them the remains of the banquet. Timidly and wonderingly the beggars entered the spacious hall, went up to the table and stood by it just where they happened to be, and cach beggar began to take and eat whatever he found lying before him. They picked up all the scraps. Naturally none of them tasted a single whole dish, or saw the orderly attendance of the servants, or the precious plate and cutlery which were used by the guests, or heard the vast choir of singers or the music which resounded throughout the universe and rose to heaven. That is why none of the beggars, even though there were some among them with natural intelligence, could form a clear and exact idea for himself of the banquet. Having satisfied themselves with the scraps, they had to be content with a conjectural and approximate idea of the splendid and delicious dinner that the honored guests had enjoyed. Having cleaned up everything edible on the table, the beggars fell at the feet of the Landlord, thanking Him for food such as they had never eaten or seen before. He said to them, "Brothers, in making my arrangements for the banquet, I did not have you in view. So I have not given you a proper dinner, and I am not giving you the gifts which have all been given away according to a previously made calculation which only I can understand." With one voice the beggars exclaimed, "Lord, who are we to have gifts or a grand dinner! We are unspeakably grateful that you have not disdained us. You have admitted us, who are racked with every kind of defect, to your wedding hall and have saved us from starving to death." The beggars dispersed, thanking and blessing the kind-hearted Landlord. Then, turning to the servants, He said: "Now clear the table and lock up my hall. There will be no more guests, and what could have been offered in the way of food has been offered. Everything is finished."
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?" "Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?" For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory foreyer, Amen
The Arena, Adaptions of the Rules for the Present-Day Monasticism, page 211
