麻豆约拍

Good morning.聽 Going through some old papers recently, I discovered a number of letters I鈥檇 written.聽 There were some angry letters:聽 the ones I鈥檇 written when things had gone wrong in my job and I鈥檇 decided to resign.聽 A friend said to me, 鈥淵es, write the letter and leave it until the morning.鈥� I never sent them.聽

St Theophilus the Penitent had the same experience only he got angry and didn鈥檛 wait until the morning.聽 It鈥檚 his feast day today.聽 He was an administrator in the 6th century.聽 He wasn鈥檛 so much a pen pusher - administrator as an official church role.聽 They wanted him to become a bishop.聽 He humbly refused.

But when the person they did make bishop sacked him from his job, he got so angry, the story goes he made a pact with the devil.聽 They say this became the foundation for the Faust legend which has appealed to playwrights, poets and composers ever since.

At the end of Marlowe鈥檚 play Dr Faustus the drama builds聽 an unbearable tension as the moment comes nearer and nearer for the devil to arrive and claim his soul.聽 I remember the first time I saw the play.聽 I knew how the story ended, but I was willing that Faust would only say yes and accept God鈥檚 gracious forgiveness even at the last moment.聽

The tale of St Theophilus ends differently, he does realise his mistake, makes a public confession and the pact with the devil is burned by the bishop in front of everyone.
As it鈥檚 now the morning after the night before, maybe now鈥檚 the opportunity to do as St Theophilus did:

Lord, for thy tender mercies鈥� sake, lay not our sins to our charge, but forgive that is past and give us grace and time to amend our lives.聽 Amen