|
PINUFIUS: I am indeed delighted at the very plentiful fruits of your
humility, which indeed I saw with no indifferent concern, when I was
formerly received in the habitation of that cell of yours, and I am very
glad that you welcome with such respect the charge given by us, the least
of all Christians, and the words that I have taken the liberty of saying so
that if I am not mistaken you carry them out as soon as ever they are
spoken by us; and though, as I remember, the importance of the words
scarcely deserves the efforts you bestow on them, yet you so conceal the
merits of your virtue, as if no breath ever reached you of those things
which you are daily practising. But because this fact is worthy of the
highest praise; viz., that you declare that those institutes of the saints
are still unknown to you as if you were still beginners we will, as briefly
as possible, summarize what you so eagerly ask of us. For we must even
beyond our powers and ability, obey the commands of such old friends as
you. And so on the value and appeasing power of penitence many have
published a great deal, not only in words but also in writing, showing how
useful it is, how strong, and full of grace, so that when God is offended
by our past sins, and on the point of inflicting a most just punishment for
such offences, it somehow, if it is not wrong to say so, stops Him, and, if
I may so say, stays the right hand of the Avenger even against His will.
But I have no doubt that all this is well known to you, either from your
natural wisdom, or from your unwearied study of Holy Scripture, so that
from this the first shoots, so to speak, of your conversion sprang up.
Finally, you are anxious not about the character of penitence but about its
end, and the marks of satisfaction, and so by a very shrewd question ask
what has been left out by others.
|
|