The preacher

Summary

When a Christian is ordained to the priesthood he is given an additional responsibility. He is not only to weep for his own sins but also to grieve over the sins of his charges (In Reg.iv.168, p. 384.3393–9). This responsibility for other men's sins made Gregory consider preaching the most important of the tasks of a bishop, and perhaps of any priest, although it is to bishops that he chiefly addresses himself. Preaching is, in his view, so fundamentally the function of the successors of the apostles that it is only by preaching that they can fulfil Christ's two precepts, to love God and to love one's neighbour, within the terms of their office. Gregory says that Isaiah desired the officium praedicationis so that he could benefit his neighbours by his active life. Jeremiah longed to cling in contemplation to his Creator, and he begged not to be sent out to the active work of preaching (r: 1.7, pl 77.20B). Both were praiseworthy in wishing to avoid the division of heart and mind which would make them less able to perform their chosen task properly. But the modern bishop must try to do both as well as he can, and bear with the discomfort of a divided mind.