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| 7th century drawing on hedgehogs by Isidore, Bodleian Library |
Here is part of his letter to his Bishop,
From Isidore to Bishop Braulio, my lord and servant of God (632, probably written from Toledo)
Do you think the gift bestowed upon you was given for
your sake alone? It is both yours and mine; it is held communally, not privately. And who, even a madman, would presume to say that you rejoice in your private possessions – you who know only how to rejoice blamelessly in communal possessions? For since God has entrusted to
your control the management of his treasure and wealth,
of health, wisdom, and knowledge, why do you not pour
out with a generous hand that which you do not reduce
by giving? Since, among the members of the lofty head
(i.e. the members of the Body of Christ, the Church),
each one possesses in another what he has not received
himself, and knows that whatever he has is to be possessed by another, is the reason why you remain parsimonious toward me perhaps because you do not find
what you may take from me in exchange? If you “give to
someone who has,” you acquire the proceeds of a very
small reward. But if you “have given to someone who
has not,” then you satisfy the command of the Evangelist (cf. Luke 14:14) that “it shall be returned to you in
the recompense of the just.”
For these reasons I [too] am tormented by conscience,
in that I sense in myself nothing good that can be shared,
because we are commanded (cf. Galatians5:13) “to serve
each other through charity” and (cf. I Peter 4:10) “each
to minister to another the grace that he has received,
as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” and
(cf. Romans 12:3–4) “according as God hath divided to
every one the measure of faith in a single group of members,” he ought to share this with the other parts, since
(I Corinthians12:11): “All these things one and the same
Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as he
will.”
But I revert to the one particular resource that I
brought up earlier, namely to importunity, which is a
friend for those destitute of friendship and for those not
distinguished with the favor of a handsome appearance.
Therefore, listen to my voice, even with such an expanse
of land lying between us (Matthew18:28): “Pay, pay what
thou owest.” For you are a servant, a servant of Christ
and of Christians, so that in this respect you are greater
than all of us, and you should not refuse to share the
favor that you know has been bestowed on you for our
sake with the thirsty souls who are tormented with a
hunger for knowledge.
At any rate, I am not a foot running at command and
able to wait upon the stomach of the Church, that is, the
judge of the members, by obediently scurrying about,
nor am I able to please the ruling sovereignty of the
head with obedience. In fact, although I know that I am
one of the more insignificant members, let that suffice,
because it is fitting that I should draw out what you are
known to have learned from the head, and fitting that
you should not do without me, however unimportant I
am, redeemed as I am by the blood of Christ.
For (cf. I Corinthians 12:21–23): “The head does not
say to the feet, I have no need of you,” because “those
that seem to be the more feeble members of the body are
the more necessary, and such as we think to be the less
honorable, about these we put more abundant honor;
and those that are our uncomely parts, have more abundant comeliness.”
So in this way our creator and dispenser regulates everything so that when the divine gifts
of one person, who does not perceive them in himself, are given to be possessed by another,
charity is increased. Finally, a manifold favor is well dispensed
when the received gift is believed to belong also to the
person who does not possess it, when it is thought to
be given for the sake of the one to whom it is paid
out.
