Catholic Radio Dramas

Let the Pastor Be Discretely Silent

From the Pastoral Guide by Saint Gregory the Great, pope (c. 540-604)

Let the pastor be discreetly silent, and to the point when he speaks

Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California

A spiritual guide should be silent when discretion requires and speak when words are of service. Otherwise he may say what he should not or be silent when he should speak. Indiscreet speech may lead men into error and an imprudent silence may leave in error those who could have been taught. Pastors who lack foresight hesitate to say openly what is right because they fear losing the favor of men. As the voice of truth tells us, such leaders are not zealous pastors who protect their flocks, rather they are like mercenaries who flee by taking refuge in silence when the wolf appears.

The Lord reproaches them through the prophet: They are dumb dogs that cannot bark. On another occasion he complains: You did not advance against the foe or set up a wall in front of the house of Israel, so that you might stand fast in battle on the day of the Lord. To advance against the foe involves a bold resistance to the powers of this world in defense of the flock. To stand fast in battle on the day of the Lord means to oppose the wicked enemy out of love for what is right.

When a pastor has been afraid to assert what is right, has he not turned his back and fled by remaining silent? Whereas if he intervenes on behalf of the flock, he sets up a wall against the enemy in front of the house of Israel. Therefore, the Lord again says to his unfaithful people: Your prophets saw false and foolish visions and did not point out your wickedness, that you might repent of your sins. The name of prophet is sometimes given in the sacred writings to teachers who both declare the present to be fleeting and reveal what is to come. The word of God accuses them of seeing false visions because they are afraid to reproach men for their faults and thereby lull the evildoer with an empty promise of safety. Because they fear reproach, they keep silent and fail to point out the sinner’s wrongdoing.

The word of reproach is a key that unlocks a door, because reproach reveals a fault of which the evildoer is himself often unaware. That is why Paul says of the bishop: He must be able to encourage men in sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. For the same reason God tells us through Malachi: The lips of the priest are to preserve knowledge, and men shall look to him for the law, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Finally, that is also the reason why the Lord warns us through Isaiah: Cry out and be not still; raise you voice in a trumpet call.

Anyone ordained a priest undertakes the task of preaching, so that with a loud cry he may go on ahead of the terrible judge who follows. If, then, a priest does not know how to preach, what kind of cry can such a dumb herald utter? It was to bring this home that the Holy Spirit descended in the form of tongues on the first pastors, for he causes those whom he has filled, to speak out spontaneously.

Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings

Saint Gregory the Great – (c. 540-604) Born the son of a wealthy patrician, Gordianus, he was educated at Rome. He was prefect of Rome when the Lombard invasion of Italy was threatening Rome in 571. Attracted to the religious life, he converted his home into St. Andrew’s Monastery and became a monk there under Valentius and founded six monasteries on his estates in Sicily. He was ordained a priest by Pope Pelagius II and served as papal nuncio to the Byzantine court 579-85 but then resumed his monastic life and became abbot of St. Andrew’s.

A plague struck Rome in 589 taking the life of Pope Pelagius and Gregory was elected Pope on September 3, 590. He established many reforms and disciplines among the clergy and ransomed captives from the invading Lombards and protected Jews from unjust coercion and fed victims of a famine. Remarkably, he confronted the Lombards at the gates of Rome, and through the eloquence of his discourse, he was able to persuaded them to spare Rome.

Gregory was responsible for ending injustices imposed by the Byzantine Emperor and for the conversion of England to Christianity and dispatched St. Augustine of Canterbury there with forty monks. He commissioned the structure of sacred music to sing the Psalms of the Divine Office, now called ‘The Gregorian Chant”. He referred to himself as the “Servant of the Servants of God”, a title used by Popes to this day. He wrote treatises, notably his Dialogue, a collection of visions, prophecies, miracles and lives of the Italian saints. He is the last of the traditional Latin Doctors of the Church, and justly called, “The Great.” He died in Rome in 604 and was canonized by acclamation immediately after his death.