教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 380 章

Gregory to Sebastian, bishop of Sirmium. I have received the most sweet and most delightful writings of your Fraternity. Which, although you never depart from my heart, have nevertheless made your Holiness as it were bodily present. But I beg almighty God that He may protect you with His right hand, and grant you both here a tranquil life, and, when it shall please Him, eternal rewards. But I ask, if you love me with that same love with which you always loved me when present, that you more earnestly entreat for me, that almighty God may the more quickly loose me from the bonds of my sins, and, stripped of the weight of this corruption, make me to stand free before His sight.

For although the sweetness of the heavenly homeland that draws us is beyond all estimation, yet there are in this life many sorrows which daily impel us to the love of things celestial. And these very sorrows please me greatly for this one reason: that they do not permit anything in this world to please me. For what is being suffered in this land, most holy brother, concerning the person of your friend, the lord Romanus, we are scarcely able to speak. Yet I say it briefly: his malice toward us has surpassed the swords of the Lombards, so that the enemies who slay us seem more kindly than the magistrates of the commonwealth, who consume us in our very thoughts by their malice, their plunderings, and their deceits.

And at one and the same time to bear the care of bishops and clergy, and also of monasteries and of the people; to keep anxious watch against the ambushes of enemies; to be forever wary against the deceits and treacheries of the dukes — of what toil, of what sorrow this is, let your fraternity weigh so much the more truly, the more purely he loves me who suffers these things. (Cf. John the Deacon, bk. III, ch. 49.) Moreover, rendering the tribute of a greeting's address, I make known what has reached me through the report of Boniface the defensor: that the most holy man, our brother the lord Anastasius the patriarch, wished to entrust to you the governance of a Church in one of his cities, and that you were unwilling to consent.

That good sense and wisdom of yours I very gladly embraced and praised heartily, and I accounted you happy and myself unhappy — I who in such a time as this consented to take up the government of a Church. If nevertheless your mind should perchance, out of condescension to the brethren and intent upon works of mercy, ever resolve to consent, I ask that you set no other before my love. For there are in the island of Sicily Churches vacant of bishops; and if it please you, with God as its author, to govern a Church, you can do so the better near the threshold of the blessed Apostle Peter, with his help. But if it does not please you, fare happily, and let that resolve remain in you, and pray for us who are unhappy.

But may Almighty God, in whatever place He shall will you to be, guard you by His protection and bring you through to the heavenly gifts. (Cf. John the Deacon, bk. III, n. 13.)