[Rusticus lived in the late 500s, and was a Deacon of the Orthodox Church of Old Rome; text needs cleaning up and I have to go through it a few times, since below is google translate from the Latin; which is an whole lot better than it used to be, especially with the new LLM programs]
I, indeed, knowing both my sins and my necessities and my measure, have often proposed to prefer silence to dogmatism, especially since never have things pertaining to Christians been so disturbed as in our times: first, indeed, because no one emulates the efforts of the ancients, but rather discusses their effects; and they do not confess themselves sons of those who have long since rested in the Lord, but rather appoint them as judges, adding to them calumnies which are too numerous to count. And this is true among the Acephali, as it must be said, all of them; but among those who have recently appeared, only the laity in particular: among whom also those who are called bishops and presbyters and deacons, and the rest of the clergy and monks, some through error, some through avarice, some through ambition, but more generally all through every evil, have cast aside the freedom and confidence and healthy zeal of Christians to such an extent that, as far as they are concerned, they no longer even leave hope of correction.
With these, indeed, all the virtue of Christians has departed, while no one truly cares for what is common and of the Lord Christ, nor does he consider it worthy of a word: but all are more keenly interested in what is their own (Phil. 2:11), and they place all their hope in those through whom they hope to enjoy this abundantly. But that these things are true, the facts themselves testify: indeed every trace of virtue has departed, and every flood of wickedness has drowned the Roman Republic. Therefore, proposing these things to my mind, I judged that I should indeed abstain from such abominations, but that I should only take my time in weeping, and that I should unceasingly bear the divine sentence, which has been frequently and strongly thundering from above upon many for a long time. But what shall I say, of leaving the world, although I am altogether hasty in will, yet very weak in virtue? All that remains for me is to hope in your prayers. I will return, therefore, to what I have proposed. As I thought about these and similar things with great care, my zeal did not cease, but reason suggested the opposite: Why are you constrained, O man, and do you only think that you must despair, looking only at human impiety and forgetting the divine will?
Consider Him who often raises the hopeless again, who has so often brought the dead to life as the Lord did: for He who died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6), nor does He now have the whole creation to despise. And the world indeed reveals what is its own, and where it is headed, turning away from its own Maker; but the merciful Lord will not therefore disdain to demonstrate all the more what is His. Meanwhile, do not hide what has been entrusted to you, whether ten talents (Matt. 25:28), or one very small particle; lest He, coming later, demand usury of His own money.
Then how do you know that neither many, nor few, nor any, will assent to what is said, either to avoid falling or to return to the faith of the Lord Christ? But when the worst of all things has happened, which we suspect is the worst of all, you will have suffered no loss. Nay, you will receive your crowns, as if you had accomplished everything. For the most upright and courageous, nay rather the most merciful judge, judges cases not by the end, but by the will and intention. Therefore, while the excuse of silence is completely closed to you on all sides, and an unfailing reward is offered for not keeping silent; if you remain silent, you will subject yourself entirely to punishment.
For the unjust accusations of those who bear it are not to be feared; they have been shown to the Lord as the procurers of infinite happiness: nor are those things which are brought upon you by those who hinder you, such as exiles or imprisonments, various afflictions and diverse distresses, for they are not equal to the terror of hell. Remember that you are a Christian and a deacon, and this, the highest of the whole Church. If the burden of the order is unbearable, why did you in any way attack the dignity? Once made a deacon, you were bound to God by his vows: otherwise you should have refuted it first, and about such a degree you should have kept peace with the adversary, asking whether you with ten thousand (Luke 14:31) could have overcome twenty thousand of your adversaries. These and similar things compel me to write, as far as I can.
The rest of your speech will be up to you, if the diction of a man who hardly presumes on the rectitude of the faith alone is good; not out of malice, far be it, but because I am certainly aware of my weakness. My intention, therefore, is to collect what has often been said in conversations, both in Constantinople and Alexandria, Egypt, or in Antinous in the Thebaid and in adjacent places, either read or even said, either by myself or by others, defending the definition of the holy synod of Chalcedon on faith, and to adapt it against the questions of my adversaries which I have similarly found, adding only what is necessary for the completion and firmness or ornamentation of the discourse. But so that there may be a distinction between the questions and the solutions, the person proper to what has been said is prefaced by each one: indeed, for those which are ours, ORTHODOX; but for those which are theirs, HERETIC, as the things themselves are, and as the book proceeds will demonstrate; only that custom has been observed in this regard, because not all that is said by such people is such. For even from those things which we confess in common, they often attempt to demonstrate those which are their own. But lest we again confuse the discourses with the same distinction, but so that it may continually run through the memory of the readers, there are distinct oppositions to only two persons.
No comments:
Post a Comment