On the Catechising of the Uninstructed 9
9 Of the Method in Which Grammarians and Professional Speakers are to Be Dealt with PL 40, 316
13. There are also some who come from the commonest schools of the grammarians and professional speakers, whom you may not venture to reckon either among the uneducated or among those very learned classes whose minds have been exercised in questions of real magnitude. When such persons, therefore, who appear to be superior to the rest of mankind, so far as the art of speaking is concerned, approach you with the view of becoming Christians, it will be your duty in your communications with them, in a higher degree than in your dealings with those other illiterate hearers, to make it plain that they are to be diligently admonished to clothe themselves with Christian humility, and learn not to despise individuals whom they may discover keeping themselves free from vices of conduct more carefully than from faults of language; and also that they ought not to presume so much as to compare with a pure heart the practised tongue which they were accustomed even to put in preference. But above all, such persons should be taught to listen to the divine Scriptures, so that they may neither deem solid eloquence to be mean, merely because it is not inflated, nor suppose that the words or deeds of men, of which we read the accounts in those books, involved and covered as they are in carnal wrappings, are not to be drawn forth and unfolded with a view to an (adequate) understanding of them, but are to be taken merely according to the sound of the letter. And as to this same matter of the utility of the hidden meaning, the existence of which is the reason why they are called also mysteries, the power wielded by these intricacies of enigmatical utterances in the way of sharpening our love for the truth, and shaking off the torpor of weariness, is a thing which the persons in question must have made good to them by actual experience, when some subject which failed to move them when it was placed baldly before them, has its significance elicited by the detailed working out of an allegorical sense. For it is in the highest degree useful to such men to come to know how ideas are to be preferred to words, just as the soul is preferred to the body. And from this, too, it follows that they ought to have the desire to listen to discourses remarkable for their truth, rather than to those which are notable for their eloquence; just as they ought to be anxious to have friends distinguished for their wisdom, rather than those whose chief merit is their beauty. They should also understand that there is no voice for the ears of God save the affection of the soul. For thus they will not act the mocker if they happen to observe any of the prelates and ministers of the Church either calling upon God in language marked by barbarisms and solecisms, or failing in understanding correctly the very words which they are pronouncing, and making confused pauses. It is not meant, of course, that such faults are not to be corrected, so that the people may say “Amen” to something which they plainly understand; but what is intended is, that such things should be piously borne with by those who have come to understand how, as in the forum it is in the sound, so in the church it is in the desire that the grace of speech resides. Therefore that of the forum may sometimes be called good speech, but never gracious speech. Moreover, with respect to the sacrament which they are about to receive, it is enough for the more intelligent simply to hear what the thing signifies. But with those of slower intellect, it will be necessary to adopt a somewhat more detailed explanation, together with the use of similitudes, to prevent them from despising what they see.
Accedens ad catechismum scrutandus quo fine velit fieri christianus. De ipsa etiam severitate Dei, qua corda mortalium saluberrimo terrore quatiuntur, charitas aedificanda est; ut ab eo quem timet, amari se gaudens, eum redamare audeat, ejusque in se dilectioni, etiamsi impune posset, tamen displicere vereatur. Rarissime quippe accidit, imo vero nunquam, ut quisquam veniat volens fieri christianus, qui non sit aliquo Dei timore perculsus. Si enim aliquod commodum exspectando ab hominibus, quibus se aliter placiturum non putat, aut aliquod ab hominibus incommodum devitando, quorum offensionem aut inimicitias reformidat, vult fieri christianus; non fieri vult potius quam fingere. Fides enim non res est salutantis corporis, sed credentis animi. Sed plane saepe adest misericordia Dei per ministerium catechizantis, ut sermone commotus jam fieri velit quod decreverat fingere: quod cum velle coeperit, tunc eum venisse deputemus. Et occultum quidem nobis est quando veniat animo, quem jam corpore praesentem videmus: sed tamen sic cum eo debemus agere, ut fiat in illo haec voluntas, etiamsi non est. Nihil enim deperit, quando si est, utique tali nostra actione firmatur, quamvis quo tempore, vel qua hora coeperit, ignoremus. Utile est sane ut praemoneamur antea, si fieri potest, ab iis qui eum norunt, in quo statu animi sit, vel quibus causis commotus ad suscipiendam religionem venerit. Quod si defuerit alius a quo id noverimus, etiam ipse interrogandus est, ut ex eo quod responderit ducamus sermonis exordium. Sed si ficto pectore accessit, humana commoda cupiens, vel incommoda fugiens, utique mentiturus est: tamen ex eo ipso quod mentitur, capiendum est principium; non ut refellatur ejus mendacium, quasi tibi certum sit, sed ut si dixerit eo proposito se venisse quod vere approbandum est, sive ille verum sive falsum dicat, tale tamen propositum quali se venisse respondit, approbantes atque laudantes, faciamus eum delectari esse se talem, qualem videri cupit. Si autem aliud dixerit, quam oportet esse in animo ejus qui christiana fide imbuendus est; blandius et lenius reprehendendo tanquam rudem et ignarum, et christianae doctrinae finem verissimum demonstrando atque laudando breviter et graviter, ne aut tempora futurae narrationis occupes, aut eam non prius collocato animo audeas imponere, facias eum velle quod aut per errorem aut per simulationem nondum volebat.