Gregorius Moralia EN 143
144 (Jb 1,4)
The sons make feasting in their homes when the individual virtues offer food in turn to the mind--which is why it adds, "taking turns each on his own day." For the day of each son is the particular light shed by each virtue. To recount the gifts of the sevenfold grace briefly,[142] wisdom has one day, understanding another, counsel another, strength another, knowledge another, devotion another, fear another. Wisdom and understanding are not the same thing, for many share the wisdom of eternity but do not understand it fully. Wisdom gives a banquet on its day, by penetrating what the heart has heard, by bringing light and comfort in the darkness. Counsel makes feasting on its own day because it fills the mind with reason by checking rash thought and action. Strength takes its turn because it offers the food of confidence to the hesitating mind in the way it does not fear adversity. Knowledge conquers the hunger of ignorance in the belly of the mind. Devotion fills the belly of the heart with the works of mercy. Fear keeps after the mind to shun pride in present things, but comforts it with the food of hope for the future.
145
I think it should be noted further of this banqueting of the sons that they take turns feeding each other. Every individual virtue would be left destitute if it were not aided by the others. Wisdom is a feeble thing, if it lacks understanding; and understanding is almost useless if it does not arise from wisdom, for when it goes among lofty matters without the ballast of wisdom, its own light-footedness carries it aloft to a ruinous fall.
Counsel is worthless if strength is lacking, for it cannot realize its discoveries in good works without strength and energy; on the other hand, strength is destroyed if it is not supported by counsel, for the more it sees it can do, the more it rushes to ruin itself without the moderating force of reason.
Knowledge is nothing if it does not have the service of devotion, for if it forgets to follow up faithfully on the good things it has considered, it leaves itself painfully vulnerable to adverse judgment. And devotion is useless if it lacks the discrimination of knowledge, for if there is no knowledge, devotion knows not how to act mercifully.
Unless fear is accompanied by all these virtues, it will rouse itself to no good work, lie torpid and inert, fearful in the face of all things.
So one virtue is strengthened by another reciprocally; so it is appropriate that the sons made feasting in turn for each other. When the one virtue encourages the other--that is what is meant by saying that many children took turns giving feasts for the others.
146 And they sent to invite their three sisters to eat and drink along with them. (Jb 1,4)
Just as our virtues summon hope, faith and charity to join them in all that they do, so the active sons invite their sisters to the feasting, so that faith, hope and charity might rejoice in the good work that each virtue accomplishes. They gather strength from the food by becoming more confident in good works; and when they look to be drenched by the liquor of contemplation after a surfeit of good works--this is like drinking from the heady cup.
But what can there be in this life that we do without even the slightest taint of contagion? Sometimes even in the good things we do we are brought closer to sin, for they make our mind rejoice and create a kind of security, and when the mind is freed from care it grows slack in laziness. Sometimes good works pollute us with a touch of pride and make us the more abject in the presence of God the more they puff us up with pride for ourselves. So the text adds:
148
(Jb 1,5)
When the week of feasting is complete, Job sends to the sons to bless them; that is to say, to follow up the deeds of virtue with careful consideration and to purify everything that has been done by careful examination of conscience. In this way we avoid thinking that bad things are good and avoid thinking that things truly good are good enough when they still lack perfection. So often the mind is deceived either by the fact of evil or by apparent abundance of goodness. But prayer is more successful than thought for considering the virtues; we can often examine our inner secrets better by prayer than by discursive thought. When the mind is lifted up by the power of compunction to consider higher things, it can contemplate everything which is below itself and in itself all the more clearly.
149
(Jb 1,5)
We rise at first light when, irradiated by the light of compunction, we abandon the night of our humanity and open the eyes of the mind to rays of the true light. We offer burnt offerings for each son when we offer to the Lord our prayer as a sacrificial victim for each of our virtues: lest wisdom fill us with pride, lest understanding go astray in its swift career, lest counsel should find confusion in abundance, lest strength should become rash with self-confidence, lest knowledge without love should puff us up, lest devotion should twist itself around and lead us away from the path of righteousness, lest fear, more timorous than it should be, should plunge us in the pit of despair. When therefore we pour out our prayers to the Lord for each virtue's purity, what else are we doing that offering burnt offering according to the number of the sons, for each of them? For holocaustum ("burnt offering") means something all burned up. To make burnt offerings therefore is to inflame the whole mind with the fire of compunction so that the heart may burn on the altar of love and sear away our polluted thoughts as if they were the sins of our own children.
150
But the only ones who know how to do this are those who keep a close and careful check on their inner thoughts before letting those thoughts turn to action; the only ones who know this are the ones who stoutly fortify their minds. Thus it is fitting that Isboseth is said to have been wiped out by unexpected death, Isboseth of whom scripture says that he had a female, not a male, door-keeper: "And now Baana and Rechab, sons of Remmon the Berothite, entered Isboseth's house when the sun was at its full heat; Isboseth himself was abed, taking his noonday sleep. They entered the house and the woman that kept the door had fallen asleep over the corn she was cleaning. Taking ears of corn, Rechab and Baana made their way in secretly, and smote him in the groin."[143] The woman who kept the door was cleaning corn: that is, the watchman of the mind in its discernment was separating virtues from vices. When she fell asleep, she allowed the ones who were bringing death to her own lord to enter: that is, when the attentive discernment wavers, the way lies open to evil spirits to destroy the soul. Coming in they pick up ears of corn: that is, soon they take away the kernels of good thoughts. And they smite him in the groin: that is, they slaughter the virtue of the heart with the delights of the flesh. For to smite someone in the groin is to permeate the life of the mind with the delights of the flesh. But Isboseth would never have fallen to this kind of attack had he not placed a woman to guard the door, that is, set a weak guardian over the approaches to the mind. Virile energy should watch over the gateway to the heart, energy which neither the sleep of negligence nor the error of ignorance can overcome.
It is appropriate that the one who was laid open to enemy swords by a woman guard should be called Isboseth: the name means "man of confusion." Someone is a "man of confusion" if he is not protected by fortifications of the mind. While he thinks he is acting virtuously, the vices sneak in unnoticed and murder him. The mind must be fortified with every virtue lest the insidious enemy should enter by the doorway of disorderly thought. Hence Solomon says: "Guard your heart with every protection, since life comes forth from it."[144] It is appropriate that we regard our virtues closely from the moment we undertake to exercise them, lest they should come from an evil source, even if their outward form is righteous. So it follows appropriately:
151
(Jb 1,5)
Sons curse in their hearts, when our good works spring from thoughts that are not good, when they put forth goodness for the world to see, but work wickedness in secret. The sons curse God when our minds think that what they have comes from themselves. The sons curse God when our minds admit that their strength comes from God but still seek praise for themselves for the gifts they have from him. The ancient enemy has three ways of attacking our good deeds in order to render the good we do before men worthless in the eyes of the judge within.
Sometimes he pollutes the intention of a good work so that the whole action comes out impure and polluted because he has tainted its source.
Sometimes he cannot taint the intention of the deed and so plants himself in our path as we go, so that as we go out, confident in a righteous intention, we might be the more readily attacked by some attached vice, as if from ambush.
Sometimes the devil neither taints our intention nor trips us up along the way, but lays a trap for us at the conclusion of the good work. He pretends to be absent from the house of the heart when we consider the act, or from the path of the deed as we accomplish it, so that he can the more cleverly waylay us at the end of the deed. He draws back and makes us more confident, and then pierces us suddenly with a bitter and incurable wound.
152 He pollutes the intention of a good work when he sees the hearts of men readily deceived and offers to their desires a breath of passing applause, so that they might turn aside in their good deeds to pursue the lowest things with their intentions all twisted up. It is thus that it is said through the prophet, with Judea as a symbol of every soul caught in the noose of bad intentions: "They have become her enemies at the outset."[145] This is as if to say openly, 'When a good deed is not undertaken with good intention, the evil spirits rule over the soul from the first moment of the thought.' They possess it the more firmly because they hold sway from the beginning.
153 When the devil does not succeed in tainting our intentions, he places traps on our path and covers them up to lead the heart astray to vice in the midst of a good deed. We start out with one intention but wind up accomplishing something far different from what we intended. Very often the praise of mankind interferes with a good work, changing the mind of the doer, and though unsought, nevertheless delights by its presence. The mind of the doer of the good deed is shaken by that delight and all the vigor of its innermost intentions is scattered to the winds.
Often we set out to be just but anger sneaks up on us and while the zeal of righteousness stirs up the mind too much, the whole of our serenity and inner peace is wounded.
Often sadness creeps up on sobriety of heart and covers everything that the mind had set out with good intention to do with a gloomy veil. This sadness is sometimes driven away all the more slowly because it comes late to the burdened mind.
Very often immoderate glee comes with good works and drives the mind to exult more than is fitting and the gravity the matter is lost sight of. The psalmist saw these traps in the way of those who start out well, and said rightly in the fulness of prophetic spirit: "They have hidden traps for me on the path I walk."[146] Jeremiah insinuates the same thing well and subtly, relating historical events and meaning them to show what happens within us: "There came eighty men from Sichem, Silo, and Samaria, beards shaven, garments rent, in mourning all of them, with bloodless offerings and incense for the Lord's house. Out came Ismahel son of Nathanias from Masphath to meet them, and wept ever as he went. 'Come,' said he, 'to Godolias son of Ahicam!' And when they had reached the middle of the town he slew them."[147] Shaving their beards: abandoning confidence in their own strength. Rending their garments: not sparing themselves in the destruction of outer seemliness. Coming to offer incense and bloodless offerings to the Lord's house: promising to add prayer to works in sacrifice to the Lord. But if they do not know how to look about themselves cautiously on the way of holy devotion, Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, comes to meet them: some evil spirit or other, by the example of his leader (namely, Satan) born of the error of pride, comes out with the snare of deception. Thus it is well said of him: "and wept ever as he went." For he was able to smite and slay the minds of the devout by hiding himself beneath a veil of virtue. He pretends to associate with those who truly grieve and hence is admitted to the inmost recesses of the heart; there he slays whatever virtue he finds there. He often promises to lead us to higher things, and so says, "Come to Godolias son of Ahicam!" And while he promises greater things he takes away lesser; so it says, "when they came to the middle of the town he slew them." Slaying the men who come to offer gifts to God in the center of the city: unless minds given to the works of God guard themselves with great circumspection, the enemy sneaks in and they lose their life on the very journey they make bearing the offerings of devotion. There is no escape from the hand of this enemy except by swift recourse to penance. So it is well added below: "Ten men were found among them who said to Ismahel: 'Do not kill us, for we have treasures of wheat, barley,oil, and honey hidden in a field, and he did not kill them."[148] A treasure in the field is like the hope of repentance--because it is unseen, it is like a treasure buried in the field of the heart. The ones who had treasures in the field were saved, for the ones who come to their senses full of laments after their incautiousness leads them to vice do not die as prisoners.
154 But when the ancient enemy smites us not at the outset of our journey (in our intentions), nor catches us up on the way, he spreads tighter nets for us at the end of the journey, which he besieges with greater wickedness as he realizes he has only this one chance left to trap us. The prophet saw these traps waiting for him at the end of the road when he said, "They shall watch out for the tip of my heel."[149] The tip of the heel is the very end of the body and signifies the culmination of our action. Whether it is evil spirits or wicked men (followers of the devils in their pride), they watch the tip of our heel when they plot to spoil the completion of a good deed. So to the serpent it is said, "She shall regard your head and you shall regard the tip of her heel."[150] To keep an eye on the head of the serpent is to watch for the beginnings of his temptation and to uproot them from the approaches of the heart with careful consideration. When he is caught at the outset, he still seeks to bite the tip of the heel, for even if he does not make the intent waver with his first suggestion, he tries to deceive us in the end. But if once the heart is corrupted in its intent, the middle and end of the following action are held securely by the clever villain, since he succeeds in seeing the whole tree bear fruit for him by poisoning the root. We must watch with the greatest care that the mind devoted to good works should not be polluted with wicked intentions and should thus become the basis of the saying, "Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This is the same as saying openly, 'There is no good done outwardly if the innocent victim is not immolated on the altar of the heart within in the eyes of God.' In every virtue it is to be considered whether the river of action comes forth pure from the fount of thought. It is to be looked to with all concern that the eye of the heart be kept pure of the dust of malice, lest the good deeds it seeks to show to men should be twisted back upon themselves through the evil of a wicked intention.
155 And so we must be concerned that our good deeds not be few, nor unexamined, so that we not be found sterile in accomplishing only a few things or foolish for leaving them unexamined. Thus it was said to Moses, "Provide thyself with spices, storax, and burnt shell, and sweet-smelling galbanum, and pure frankincense, all in equal weight, and make incense compounded with all the perfumer's art, well tempered together, unadulterate."[151] We make incense of spices when we reek of an abundance of virtues at the altar of good works. This incense becomes well tempered and unadulterate because insofar as one virtue is joined to another, so much so do we display the incense of good works candidly. Thus it is appropriately added: "And when you beat the whole into a fine dust, place some of it in the presence of the tabernacle."[152] We grind down all our spices into fine powder when we work at our good deeds on the pestle of the heart with secret earnestness. We consider whether they are truly good. To reduce spices to powder is to think over our virtues and subject them to the care of a thorough examination of conscience. Note was is said of the same powder: "Place some of it in the presence of the temple." Our good deeds are truly pleasing in the sight of the judge when the mind goes over them and reduces them to a powder like these spices, to keep the good we do from being crude and heavy, so that it may spread forth its odor the more abundantly than if the hand of consideration had not ground it down. This is why the virtue of the bride is praised in the voice of the groom: "Who is she, who makes her way up by the desert road, erect as a column of smoke that is all myrrh and incense and those sweet scents the perfumer knows?"[153] The holy church goes forth erect like a column of smoke going up from incense when it advances every day in the righteousness of an incense that is within it and does not go astray into vagrant thoughts, but keeps itself in check in its inmost heart with the rod of discipline. By constantly thinking and considering its acts, the church has myrrh and incense in its works but powder in its thoughts. This is what is said another time to Moses of those who offer sacrifice: "Let the victim be skinned, let its bones be ground into dust."[154] We skin the victim when we take away the appearance of virtue from before the eyes of our mind. We break its bones into pieces when we examine carefully its inwards and think of it piece by piece. We must be careful lest when we have conquered evil we should be tripped up by good things with their enticements: lest perhaps they should flood out and betray themselves, lest they should be taken unawares, lest they should wander from the path, lest through weariness they should lose the merit of their former labor. The mind should carefully watch in all things and persevere in the foresight of its circumspection. So it is well added:
156
(Jb 1,5)
Good things are done in vain if they are laid aside before the end of the day, just as it is vain for the runner to fly swiftly but fall aside before he reaches the finish line. This is what is said of the reprobate: "Woe to those who have lost their substance."[155] This is what Truth says to his chosen ones: "You are the ones who abided with me in my temptations."[156] This is why Joseph, who is said to have remained just in the midst of his brothers even to the end, is the only one said to have had a coat down to his ankles.[157] Just as a coat thrown over the shoulders covers the ankles, so also good deeds cover us in the eyes of God even to the end of our life. This is why we are commanded through Moses to offer the tail of the victim on the altar,[158] so that we might accomplish every good thing we set out to do by persevering to the end. The things we have well begun are to be pursued all days, so that when wickedness is driven away in battle, the victory of goodness itself may be held in a steady hand.
157 We have gone over this text in the three senses, offering various nutriments from which the hungering soul may take what it pleases. We ask this one thing, that those who rise to the heights of spiritual understanding not forget to maintain due reverence for the historical narrative.
201
in which we can see our true inner face. There we see all our ugliness, and there we see all our beauty. There we learn how far we have come, and there we learn how far away we still are from our goal. Scripture recounts the deeds of the bold to stir the hearts of the weak to imitation. While it recounts the ancients' victories in the wars with sin, it strengthens us in our weakness. With its words it makes our mind less hesitant in the face of combat, when we see the triumphs of so many strong men placed before us. Yet sometimes it makes known to us not only the virtues of the ancients, but also their failings, so that we might learn from the victory of the strong what to imitate and from their lapses what to beware. Job, for example, is shown to have grown in the face of temptation, but David was laid low. The virtues of the ancients foster our hope and the failings of the ancients stir us to humble watchfulness, so that while some stories lift us with joy, others press upon us a caution. The listener's mind is taught now by hope's confidence of hope, now by humility's caution, so that it neither swells with rash pride (for it is checked by caution) nor despairs in timidity (for it is strengthened to the confidence of hope by the example of ancient virtue).
202
(Jb 1,6)
Notice how holy scripture expresses at the outset of its narratives the nature of the relevant causes and their expected results. Sometimes the description of a place reveals what may be expected of the following story, or the description of physical appearance, or the description of weather, or mention of the time and season.
For example, divine scripture expresses the rights and wrongs of what it is about to narrate by description of place when it says of Israel that it could not hear the words of God on the mountain but received his commands in the lowlands. This reveals the subsequent weakness of people that would not rise to the heights but let themselves go with loose living in low places.
Description of physical appearance is used to reveal the future when Stephen, in the Acts of the Apostles, proclaimed that he saw Jesus, who sits at the right hand of God in power, standing up: for standing is the act of one who comes to aid, and it is right that the one who comes to one's aid in battle be seen standing.
Description of weather anticipates what follows when the evangelist prefaces a statement from the Lord's preaching that none of the Jews of that day would have faith by saying, "For it was winter." It is written, "Iniquity will abound, the charity of the many will grow cold." The evangelist made certain to mention that the season was winter so as to indicate the chill of malice that dwelled in the hearts of the Lord's audience. This is also why Peter's denial is prefaced, "Because it was cold he stood before the coals warming himself." He had cooled to the warmth of charity within and was warming himself with the love of the present life, as though his inner want could find warmth by huddling over the coals of the persecutors.
Description of times shows how events will turn out when it is said of Judas as he went out to his traitorous business by night, never to return to grace: "But it was night." Likewise it is said to the unjust rich man: "On this night they seek to take your soul away from you." The soul that is led to the shadows is pursued not by day but by night. This is also why Solomon is said to have received in dreams by night the wisdom in which he would not persevere. This is also why the angels came to Abraham at mid-day; but when they came to punish Sodom, they are said to have come to the city at dusk. Because the story of Job's temptation leads to victory, it is said to have begun by day, when it is said:
203
(Jb 1,6)
Who are called the sons of God if not the chosen angels? It is clear that they serve in the presence of majesty--but where then can they be coming from that they could come to be present before the Lord? The voice of Truth speaks of them: "The angels in heaven gaze constantly upon the face of my father who is in heaven." Of them the prophet says, "Thousands on thousands ministered to him and ten thousand times a hundred thousand were at his side." If they always see and are always at his side, we must ask carefully whence they come, if they never depart. But it is said of them through Paul: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to serve those who will receive the inheritance of salvation?" Because we know that they are sent out, we know whence they come. But see how we only add one question to another and while we try, as it were, to loosen the sandal-strap, we only knot it the tighter. How can they always be at hand or always look upon the face of the father if they are sent out to serve for our salvation? We can solve this problem quickly if we consider the great subtlety of the angelic nature. They do not depart from the beatific vision in such a way that they are deprived of the joys of inner contemplation; for if going forth they should lose sight of the creator, they could not lift up the prostrate or proclaim the truth to the ignorant, and they would not in any way be able to pour forth for the blind from the fountain of light that they themselves would thus have lost by going forth.
Now the angelic nature differs from our created nature in this, that we are hemmed in to one place and limited by the blindness of ignorance. The spirits of angels are circumscribed in place, to be sure, but their knowledge is far and away incomparably broader than ours. They are full of knowledge within and without because they contemplate the very source of knowledge. What can those who know the all-knower not know of the things to be known? Their knowledge is much broader compaired to ours, and yet narrow and finite compaired to divine knowledge. Just as their spirits compaired our bodies are spirits, but compaired to the highest and unlimited spirit, their spirits seem like bodies. They are both sent out and they remain at hand, because insofar as they are limited to one place, they go forth; and insofar as they are constantly present within, they never leave. They look upon the face of the father forever and still come to us; for they come out to us in their spiritual presence, but remain in contemplation in the presence of the one from whom they have come. So it can be said, "The sons of God had come to be present before the Lord;" for the spirit comes back in conversion to the place whence it had left with no turning away of the spirit.
204
(Jb 1,6)
Surely we must ask how Satan could have been present among the chosen angels, Satan who had long before, driven by pride, fallen from the angelic condition into damnation. But it is appropriate to say he was among them, for even if he had lost his blessedness, he still had not lost the nature that was similar to theirs; and if he was weighed down by his just deserts, he was still borne up by the subtlety of his nature. Satan is thus said to have been present before the Lord among the sons of God because in the same glance by which almighty God sees all spiritual creatures he sees even Satan in the ranks of sublime natures, as scripture attests: "The eyes of the Lord contemplate the wicked along with the good." But we must seriously ask what it means to say that Satan was present before the Lord, for it is written, "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God." How can Satan be present and see God, when surely he can in no way be pure of heart?
205 But we must notice that he is only said to have been present before the Lord,
not explicitly to have seen the Lord. He came not to see, but to be seen. Satan was in the sight of the Lord, but the Lord was not in Satan's sight. When a blind man stands in the sun, he is drenched with the sun's rays but he still does not see the light by which he is lit. So Satan was present among the angels in the sight of God, because the divine power that sees and penetrates all things saw the impure spirit that did not see it in return. Because the things that flee God cannot hide from him (for all things lie bare to the heavenly gaze) Satan was present, though absent, to the one that is ever-present.
206 (Jb 1,7)
Why is it that when the good angels come the Lord does not say to them, "Whence do you come?" And why is Satan asked whence he comes? After all, we only ask about things of which we are ignorant. But for God 'not to know' something is the same as for him to reproach someone. So at the last judgment it will be said to some, "I do not know you or whence you are; depart from me all you doers of iniquity." Just as a truthful man is said not to know how to lie if he refuses to lapse into falsehood; it is not that he would not know how if he did wish to lie, but that he despises false-speaking for love of truth. What is it therefore to say to Satan, "Whence do you come?" if not to reproach his ways as ones unknown to God? The light of truth is ignorant of the shadows it loathes; and truth itself, as if out of ignorance, rightly asks after the paths of Satan that God condemns in judgment. This is why the voice of the creator says to the sinning Adam, "Where are you?" The divine power was not unaware of the hiding places his servant had chosen in flight after his sin, but because God saw him lapsed into sin and still, as it were, hidden from the eyes of truth under sin, and because God did not approve the shadows of his error, so (as if he did not know where the sinner was) he calls out to him and asks, "Adam, where are you?" By the fact that he calls, he gives a sign that he calls Adam back to repentance. By the fact that he asks, he hints openly that he knows nothing of sinners who are rightly to be damned. God does not call Satan, but only makes inquiry of him, saying: "Whence do you come?" God does not in any way invite the apostate spirit to repentance, but condemns him by ignoring the ways of his pride. So while the journey of Satan is mentioned, the good angels are not asked whence they come, for their ways are known to the Lord inasmuch as their journeys are made with the Lord's aid. While they serve his will alone, they cannot be unknown to him, since under the approving eye they are always in his presence.
207 (Jb 1,7)
The going around in circles represents anxious labor, so Satan went laboriously around the earth because he refused to stand at peace at the height of heaven. When he says that he did not fly over it but passed through it he shows by what weight of sin he is dragged down. Passing through the earth to and fro, he goes around it: because fallen from the flights of spiritual power, weighed down by the burden of his malice, he goes on out through the wearying circles of his course. Thus it is said of the members of his spiritual body in the Psalms, "Impious people walk in circles," for when they do not seek what is within, they too are wearied by the toils of things that are without.
Gregorius Moralia EN 143