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Gregory describes in the Dialogues how certain bishops were brought to trial by the Arians during the Vandal persecution in North Africa; because they would not stop preaching the catholic faith and speaking the truth, their persecutors had their tongues cut out. They went on speaking as though nothing had happened. ‘Truly wonderful and utterly astounding!’ exclaims Peter the Deacon. Gregory points out that
It is written of the Only-Begotten of the supreme Father, ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God’ [John 1.1]. It is also said of his power, ‘All things were made through him.’ Why, then, do we wonder if the Word which made the tongue is able to speak without the Tongue? Peter is satisfied
(d: iii.32, pl 77.293B)God is able to make his creation ‘speak’ in a multitude of ways, Gregory believes, and in Christ he is himself the supreme Word, in himself an act of communication with his creation. When we read ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away’, Gregory points to this paradox of the variety of ‘words’ in created things which are transient, and the absolute permanence of the Word of God.
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