I understood this story till the end - the brother was taking two verses out of context and stringing them together. The men were not choosing labor over their prayers or meditation times, they were not doing something autonomously, against what the Lord would have them do, so his comment was out of place. The old man was sharper than Jesus would have been, though. Jesus gently chided when someone had something mixed up, but this Abba Silvanus gave a sting, a sharp rebuke that seemed born more out of dislike and "rightness" than out of love and the hope of helping a new guy get things straight. The comment at the end makes me wonder - would he say that Mary only was praised for pouring the nard on Jesus because of the indignant ones who spoke out against her "wasteful" action?
This I don't understand. It was because of Mary's own heart that she was praised, wasn't it?