"If the virtue of charity consists of love for one's neighbors, and if we are accordingly ordered to love our neighbors as ourselves, why is it that your Beatitude does not love me as much as you love yourself? For I know with what ardor, with what zeal you wished to escape the burdens of the episcopate, and yet you did not prevent these same burdens of the episcopate from being imposed on me. And so it is certain that you do not love me as much as you love yourself, for you wanted me to undertake those burdens that you did not want imposed o yourself. But because, while unworthy and inform, I have taken on an old and very broken down ship (for the waves pour in from all sides and the rotten planks, shaken by daily and powerful storms, suggest a shipwreck), I ask by our almighty Lord that in this danger of mine you stretch forth the hand of your prayer. For you are able to pray all the more earnestly, as you are situated further away from the confusion of the tribulations from which we suffer in this country."
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 121.
No comments:
Post a Comment