Letter 5026: Sins resist the fulfillment of our desires — that is the simple truth of our condition.

Ennodius to Agapitus. Sins stand in the way of our desires, and so that the state of their deserts may become known to those who transgress, the things we long for are withdrawn from the very nearness of our lips. Things once offered afflict us more sharply when they are lost: the thirst is stronger which a taste of the waters heightens. Benefits denied at the very outset do not burn the memory: who would bear with an even mind the loss of a sweetness that had already been set before his eyes? But these matters are rightly referred back to providence on high, by which the heavenly dispensation of the mystery for that very reason sets its hand against human arrangements, so that it may grant the fulfillment of our prayers. Your holy father had gladly promised that he would obey the command of Your Greatness concerning my coming to meet you, but, as he says, supervening counsels carried off his mind in another direction for the advantage of the Church, just as the page sent to you by the aforesaid man declared. Yet he awaits a second conversation with Your Greatness concerning the matter that has been designated, by which it may be more clearly disclosed that I am necessary for the advantage of your brother Faustus the patrician, to whose favor he judges that nothing is free for him to refuse. As for what remains, my humble service having been received, I pray that the Maker of heaven, who has deigned to pour into your eminence a care for my littleness, may himself through you dispose what is to be followed.

XXVI. AGAPITO ENNODIVS. Resistunt peccata desideriis et ut meritorum status delinquentibus innotescat, a labiorum proximitate cupita subtrahuntur. acrius adfligunt oblata, cum pereunt: potior sitis est, quam undarum gustus exaggerat: non urunt memoriam prima fronte negata beneficia: quis ferat ingestam oculis aequo animo se perdidisse dulcedinem? sed recte ista ad supernam remittuntur prouidentiam, qua caelestis dispensatio mysterii idcirco humanis dispositionibus manus opponit, ut uotorum praestet effectum. sanctus pater uester libenter se pariturum iussioni magnitudinis uestrae fuerat de mea occursione pollicitus, sed animum eius in diuersam partem pro utilitate, quantum dicit, ecclesiae superuenientia rapuere consilia, sicut praefati pagina ad uos directa declarauit. praestolatur tamen super negotio designato magnitudinis uestrae secunda conloquia, quo manifestius in fratris uestri Fausti patricii utilitate me esse necessarium reseretur, cuius gratiae nihil sibi aestimat liberum denegare. quod restat, obsequii mei humilitate suscepta precor, ut caeli opifex, qui culmini uestro paruitatis meae curam est dignatus infundere, ipse per uos sequenda disponat.