Gregorius Moralia EN 454
455
(Jb 3,14)
From things deprived of sense we learn what to think about things possessed of sense and intelligence.
The earth is fertilized by the air, but the air is governed by the quality of heaven. Just so men rule over beasts, angels over men, and archangels over angels. For we learn from experience that men rule over beasts, and we are taught as well by the words of the psalmist, who says, "You have subdued all things beneath his feet, all the sheep and cattle, and the beasts of the field besides." But an angel testifies through the prophet that angels preside over men, saying, "The prince of the kingdom of the Persians has resisted me." But Zachariah the prophet attests that angels are subject to the power of the higher angels: "Behold, the angel who was speaking in me went out, and another angel went out to meet him and said to him, 'Run, speak to that boy, saying, "Jerusalem shall live without walls."'" If the highest powers did not govern the lowest ones in the duties of the holy spirits, the angel would not have learned from another angel what to say to the man.
Because therefore the creator of all things holds all things to himself but at the same time uses intermediaries to govern other creatures, and so arranges the order of the whole fair world, we understand "kings" here as the spirits of the angels who serve the creator of all things in his presence, and thus have authority to rule over us. Job would sleep with kings because man would already be at rest with the angels if he had not heeded the tongue of the tempter. The angels are well described as consuls as well, because they take counsel for the republic of the spirit when they join us to themselves, comrades in that kingdom. They are well called consuls because when we recognize the will of the creator in their messages, we are taking counsel from them in our difficulties and troubles.
456 But because blessed Job is filled with the holy spirit of eternity,
and because eternity has no past nor future, and so knows nothing of the past fading away or the future coming to be because it sees all things as if present, Job can contemplate the preachers yet to come of the church in the present tense of the spirit. Those preachers, unlike the ancient fathers, will pass from the body and suffer no delay in reaching the celestial homeland. As soon as they leave the bondage of the flesh, they repose in the heavenly home, as Paul attests, saying, "We know that if our earthly home and dwelling is dissolved, that we have a house built of God, not made by hands, everlasting in the heavens."
But before our Redeemer paid the penalty of death to free the human race, even those who had followed the ways of the heavenly homeland were held in the prisons of the nether world after passing from the flesh. This was not so that punishment should strike them like sinners, but because the guilt of the first sin kept them from entering the kingdom, kept them resting in distant places, for the intercession of the Mediator had not yet come to pass. So according to the testimony of our Redeemer, the rich man who was tormented in the nether world could see Lazarus reposing in the bosom of Abraham: but if Lazarus were not in the lower world himself, the rich man could never have seen him from where he was being tormented. So when our Redeemer perished to pay for our sins, he went down to the lower world to lead those who had clung to him back to the heavens.
But where man now ascends after his redemption, there he could already have been without need of redemption if he had not sinned. So here the holy man thinks that if he had not sinned he would ascend even unredeemed to the place the preachers who would come after the redemption would attain only with great difficulty. And he indicates the companions with whom he would choose to be at rest when he says, "with the kings and consuls of the earth." For the kings are the holy preachers of the church who know how to govern those who have been entrusted to them and to discipline their own flesh well. The ones who restrain the movements of desire within themselves and rule by the law of virtue over their own thoughts are well called the consuls of the earth. They are kings because they rule over themselves; but they are consuls of the earth because they offer the counsel of life to those who have perished through sin. They are kings because they know how to govern themselves; they are consuls of the earth because they lead earthly minds to heavenly things by counsel and exhortation. Or was it not a consul of the earth who said, "Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my counsel"? And again: "It would be better if she remained so, according to my counsel."
457 (Jb 3,14)
Whoever desires what is illicit or wishes to seem to be something great in this world is hemmed in by the swarming thoughts of the heart, and while he stirs up a throng of desires within he overwhelms his own beleaguered mind by incessant recurrence to such thoughts. One man, for example, surrenders to lasciviousness and creates before the eyes of the mind images of the foul things he would like to do, and when his plans do not bear fruit, he is all the more intent on his fantasies. Perfect pleasure is sought and the mind is thus battered and weakened, cautious and blinded, looking for a chance to fulfill its wicked desire. The mind suffers these thoughts as if they were a crowd of people: when the mind is trampled by a needless mob of thoughts and images.
Another man surrenders to the mastery of his rage, and with what does he fill his heart but all manner of quarrel, even imaginary ones? He is often oblivious of the people who are with him while he argues with people who are elsewhere; he gives and takes insult in his heart, and gives back nastier than he gets. And when there is no one at hand to confront, he creates noisy riots in the heart. He suffers from the crowd within when this terrible burden of inflamed thoughts is pursuing him.
Another gives himself up to avarice and spurns what he has to desire what belongs to others. Often he does not succeed in getting what he wants, and passes his day in idleness and his night in thought. He is too lazy to do useful work because he is worn out by thinking of what is denied him. He multiplies his plans and constantly fills the spaces of his mind with new ideas. He struggles to get what he desires and to obtain it he takes the most secret paths to his goal. As soon as he devises a clever ploy, he acts as if he already had what he sought and rejoices; he begins to plan what he will add to his prize and acts as if he expected to be treated as one who has come up in the world. Because he takes his fancies seriously, he soon begins to look out for the traps of those who envy him and worries about the opposition they will raise against him. He thinks about his response and though he has gotten nothing yet, he is already worried about defending himself in court against those who will try to take it from him. Though he has not yet gotten what he coveted, he already has the fruit of his coveting, strife and trouble. So he too is surrounded by a troublesome people, for he is trampled under the pressure of his own insistent avarice.
Another man chooses pride as the tyrant he will accept and lifts his wretched heart up against other men while making it a slave to his vice. He seeks the insignia of high office, he demands to be exalted by his own achievements, and he already depicts himself to himself in his thoughts as everything that he wants to be. He already presides at the bench, he already sees the obeisances of his loyal subjects, he already struts before the crowd, he already imposes penalties on some and makes amends to others. He sees himself already, in his heart, surrounded by lackeys, going forth before the people, he sees already the ceremonies of which he is the object, though he creeps along thinking of this, alone and unnoticed. He is trampling on some already and ennobling others, satisfying his hatred against the ones and winning applause from the rest. The man who imprints such fantasies on his heart is really living in a waking dream. He puts up with as much as he can imagine, truly bearing with him the crowds within that arise from his thoughts.
Another man flees all ill-doing but still fears to be without the good things of the world. He seeks to keep what he has, is ashamed to seem to take a lower station among men, and takes the greatest care that he not be found impoverished at home or lose the respect of others in public. He wants enough for himself, enough for his subjects' needs. In order to play the part of patron before his subjects, he needs patrons to serve himself. But when he is joined to their service, he is involved in their affairs and often must consent to their illicit actions and commit crimes, not for himself, but to keep the things he cannot let go of. Often he fears that he will be honored less in the world and gives his approval in the presence of great personages to things which he condemns if left to his own judgment. While he worries earnestly about what he owes to his patrons, what he owes to his subordinates, how to profit for himself, and how to gratify his inclinations, he is surrounded by a crowd of ceaseless cares that tear at him.
458 But on the other hand there are holy men who seek none of the things
of this world and are troubled by none of this crowd of thoughts in the heart. They remove all the unchecked impulses of desire from the chamber of the heart with the hand of holy thought and because they despise all the things that pass away they suffer none of the contumacious thoughts those things give birth to. They seek only the eternal homeland. Because they love none of the things of this world, they enjoy great tranquility of mind. So it is rightly said, "they build for themselves desert places," for to build desert places is to banish the tumult of earthly desires from the hidden places of the heart and to sigh with one thought for the eternal homeland, out of love for the peace that lies within. The man who said, "This one thing I have sought from the Lord, this one thing shall I seek, that I should dwell in the house of the Lord" had surely banished the tumult of such thoughts from himself. He had fled from the crowd of earthly desires, to the great desert that is himself, where it is safe to see nothing outside himself because he loves nothing except as he should. He had found a great place of refuge from the hubbub of temporal affairs, the quiet of the mind in which he could see God the more clearly, by finding himself the more alone with God alone.
459 It is well that those who build desert places
for themselves are called consuls because they build the desert of the mind in themselves so that (insofar as they are successful) they can continue to counsel others out of charity. So let us consider this man we put forth as a consul [i.e., the psalmist] a little more carefully, so that he can scatter the coins of his virtues to the crowds of people subject to him, examples of the higher life.
See for example how he offers himself as an example for giving back good for evil, saying, "If I have given back evil to the ones avenging themselves on me, I would perish deservedly at the hands of my enemy, vain and empty." He gives a sign of how to stir up love for the creator, saying, "But for me to cling to God is a good thing." To give an example of holy humility he reveals the secrets of his heart, saying, "Lord, my heart is not exalted nor are my eyes lifted up." He excites us by his example to imitate his righteousness and zeal, saying, "Have I not hated those who hate you, God, and been wearied by your enemies? I hated them with perfect hatred, they are made enemies to me." To fire us with desire for our eternal home, he laments the length of our life here, saying, "Alas, alas, that my dwelling thus drags on and on." Truly this consulship is distinguished for generosity, when he has scattered the coins of so many virtues for us by the example of his own life.
460 But this consul tells us whether he has built his desert for himself,
for he says, "I withdrew, taking flight, and I have stayed in the desert." He took flight and withdrew because he lifted himself above the crowd of worldly desires in deep contemplation of God. But he remains in the desert because he perseveres in keeping his mind aloof. Jeremiah spoke aptly of this desert to the Lord, saying, "I sat alone apart from the face of your hand, because you have filled me with threats." For the face of the hand of God is that just stroke of judgment by which he drove the proud first man from paradise and shut him out in blindness and exile here. But the threats are the fear of the punishment still to follow. After the face of his hand, threats still terrify us because we have experienced his judgment in the punishment of exile here with which we are afflicted, and if we will not cease to sin, he threatens still more, eternal, punishment for us.
So let the holy man think of the place whence man has fallen, cast out here, and let him think whither the judge's justice hastens the person who goes on sinning here. And let him banish all the crowd of earthly desires from himself and hide himself in the great desert of the mind, saying, "From the face of your hand I sat alone, because you have filled me with your threat." This is as if he said openly, 'While I consider what I suffer already, having felt your judgment, I nervously seek refuge in the mind from the tumult of earthly desires because I fear the fiercer eternal punishments you yet threaten. So it is well said of kings and consuls, "who build for themselves desert places," because those who well know how to rule themselves and take counsel for others, since they cannot now be in the presence of that inmost peace, take care to imitate it here in their hearts with diligence and peace of mind.
461
(Jb 3,15)
Who is he calling princes if not the leaders of the holy church, whom divine providence supplies without interruption to take the place of preachers gone before? The psalmist speaks of them to the church: "In place of your fathers there are born to you sons: you shall establish them as princes over all the earth."
But what does he mean by gold, if not wisdom? Of this it is said through Solomon, "A desirable treasure lies in the mouth of the wise man." (For he sees wisdom as gold when he calls it a treasure.) Wisdom is rightly called gold because just as temporal goods are purchased with gold, so eternal goods are purchased with wisdom. If gold were not wisdom, it would not have been said to the church of Laodicea by the angel, "I exhort you to buy from me fired gold." We buy gold when we offer our obedience in order to receive wisdom. A wise man shrewdly urges us to make this contract when he says, "You have desired wisdom. Keep his commandments and the Lord offers it to you."
What do the houses stand for if not our consciences? So it is said to a man who was healed, "Go to your house." This is as if to say, 'After this outward miracle, withdraw to your conscience and consider how you should display yourself to God inwardly.'
What then is indicated by the silver but divine eloquence? Thus it is said through the psalmist, "Eloquence of the Lord, chaste eloquence, silver tested by fire.' The Lord's eloquence is called silver tested by fire because if God's word is fixed in our heart, it is then tested by tribulation.
462 So the holy man, filled with the spirit of eternity,
summarizes things that are to come, and embraces in the open expanse of his mind the generations that will be born in ages far in the future. With awe and wonder he thinks about the chosen ones with whom he would have found rest without toil in eternity, if no one had ever sinned through the greed of pride. And so let him say, "For now would I be sleeping silently and be at rest in my sleep with the kings and consuls of the earth who build for themselves desert places, or with the princes who possess gold and fill their houses with silver." If the rot of sin had not corrupted our first parent, he would never have begotten sons of himself for gehenna, but only the chosen ones (who had now to be saved through the redemption) would have been born. So let him see those chosen ones and think how he could have shared their rest. Let him see the holy apostles govern the church entrusted to them, how the word of their preaching is a constant source of counsel, and let him call them kings and consuls. Let him see the leaders of the church rise to take their places, possessing the gold of wise living and shining with the silver of sacred speech by preaching what is right to others, and let him speak of them as wealthy princes whose consciences, whose homes, are filled with gold and silver.
But because sometimes the prophetic spirit is unable to foresee what will come unless it represents to the heart of the prophet olden times as well, the holy man now raises and lowers his eyes and sees not only what is to come, but what has already passed into memory, and so he adds:
463
I would not survive, or like the ones who were conceived but did not see the light. (Jb 3,16)
Because a still-born child has come before its time and perished, it is hidden straightaway. The still-born whom the holy man thinks of as companions for the rest he could have had must be the elect who came into being from the first times of the world before our redemption and still sought to render themselves dead to this world. The ones who did not have the tablets of the written law are like the ones who came forth dead from the womb, because they feared their creator out of obedience to the natural law; and since they believed in the Mediator to come they put their pleasures to death and so sought energetically to obey even the commands they had not received in writing. So the time that brought forth our ancient fathers, dead to this world already at the beginning of time, is the womb of the still-born.
For example, there was Abel who is reported not to have resisted the brother who killed him. There was Enoch who proved himself to be such a man that he was carried off to walk with the Lord. There was Noe who outlived the world in the world because he had been found pleasing to the Lord's scrutiny. There was Abraham who was a pilgrim in this world, but a friend to God. There was Isaac, whose eyes were misted over with age and who could not see the present, but who saw as if by a great light things of future ages through the prophetic power of the spirit. There was Jacob, who fled the wrath of his brother in all humility, and gently mastered it. He was blessed with great progeny, but he was still more fertile in the abundance of the spirit, and bound his offspring with chains of his prophecy. So this still-born child is well spoken of as hidden away, because the great part of the human race from the beginning of the world is hidden away from us, while Moses wrote of a few we know about. Neither should we believe that there were only so many just men down to the time of the acceptance of the law as Moses wrote about so briefly. Because therefore from the foundation of the world a multitude of good men had come forth but are for the most part hidden from our knowledge, this still-born child is called hidden. It is said not to have survived, because the lives of a few only are narrated in scripture and the greater part of them survive for our memory in no record whatever.
464 But it is rightly added, "Or like the ones who were conceived but did not see the light."
For those who were born into the world after the acceptance of the law were conceived for their creator under the admonishment of that same law. But the ones who were conceived did not see the light because they could not survive to see the coming of the Lord's incarnation, though they believed in it faithfully. For the incarnate Lord says, "I am the light of the world," and that light says, "Many prophets and just men longed to see what you see and they did not see it." "The ones who were conceived," therefore, "did not see the light," because they were stirred to the hope in the coming Mediator by the plain words of the prophets, but they could not actually see his incarnation. The man conceived in their midst possessed the pattern of faith within, but did not bring it forth to behold openly the divine presence, for death intervened and took them from the world before the Truth made manifest could enlighten the world.
465 So the holy man, filled with the spirit of eternity,
bound all these things to his memory as they slipped away, controlling them with the hand of the heart. And because every creature is a tiny thing next to its creator, Job sees past and future through the same spirit that sees nothing except what always exists. He lifts and lowers the eyes of the mind, looking to the past and future, burning for eternity with all his heart, saying, "For now would I be sleeping silently." ("Now" is of the present time.) To seek the repose that stays constantly present is only to sigh for the joy of eternity, to which there is no past or present. Truth hints to us that this eternity is always his to pour out to us, as Moses records, where it says, "I Am Who Am. And you will say to the sons of Israel, The One Who Is sent me to you."
But because Job here sees the things that pass away, because he seeks the ever-present joy, because he thinks of the coming light, because he counts over the ranks of the elect--in this way he is shows to us clearly the calm at the center of this light and then using even clearer words shows what happens in that calm to the ways of the wicked.
466
(Jb 3,17)
A little earlier we said that the hearts of sinners are hemmed in by a crowd of nagging ideas pressing in on them, for they are held in the grip of clamorous desire. But the pitiless are said to leave off from their rage in the light they could not see when they were conceived, for the pagan peoples have found the coming of that Mediator for whom the fathers who lived under the law had long been waiting, who would bring tranquility to their lives, as Paul attests: "What Israel has sought, this it has not achieved, but the elect have achieved it." In this light the pitiless leave off from their rage when the minds of the perverse learn the truth and abandon the wearying desires of the world to find rest in the tranquility of the love that lies within. Is not that light summoning them to let go when it says, "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me that I am gentle and humble at heart, and you will find repose for your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden is light"? What burden is placed on the mind by one who teaches that every troubling desire be shunned? What burden does he command for his subjects when he urges us to turn aside from the wearying ways of this world? But as Paul says, "Christ died for the pitiless."
But it was for this that the Light deigned to die for the pitiless, that the pitiless might not have to remain in the uproar of their darkness. So let the holy man think about the way the Light snatched the pitiless from their terrible labors by the mystery of his incarnation, cleansing the desires of wickedness from their hearts. Let him see how all those who have turned from the world can taste here and now in peace of mind a little of the repose which they long to have for eternity, and let him thus say, "There the pitiless have left off from their uproar and there is rest for those wearied of their strength."
467 For all the and mighty of this world are like the strong,
not worn out from strength. But whoever is strengthened by love of his creator grows stronger in the longed-for strength of God and grows proportionately weaker in his own strength. He desires eternal things more vigorously and so grows weary and lackadaisacal in the presence of temporal things--and rightly so. Thus the psalmist was wearied of the strength of self-love when he said, "My soul has grown weak in your salvation." By advancing in the salvation that is of God he had grown weak because in his yearning for the light of eternity he was breathless and broken as far as trusting in his body was concerned. So again he says, "My soul has desired and grown weak for the courts of the Lord." No wonder that when he says, "has desired," he adds rightly, "and grown weak," because a desire for divinity must be small indeed if it is not soon followed by a weakening of the self. Whoever is fired with desire for the courts of eternity deserves to grow weak in love of temporal things, becoming colder in his enthusiasms for the world, the more warmly he rises in the love of God. If he should seize hold of this love in fulness, he has left the world behind altogether.
And he dies entirely to earthly things by stirring with the spirit of eternity in the heavenly life on high. Was not the man who said, "My soul has turned to water when he spoke," telling us that he had found himself wearied of his own strength? When the mind is touched by the breath of hidden speech it grows weak in the strength that comes from itself, and turns to water at the touch of the desire that absorbs it. And so it finds itself wearied when it sees a strength beyond itself to which it aspires. So the prophet said he saw a vision of God and then added, "I grew weak and sickened for many days." When the mind is bound to the power of God, the flesh is weakened of its own strength. So Jacob, when he had held the angel, soon began to limp with one foot, because the man who sees lofty things with true love has already forgotten how to walk the ways of this world with its double desires. The man who is strengthened by the love of God alone is relying on one foot alone; the other foot must wither away because as the mind's power grows surely the power of the flesh must wane.
So blessed Job can look deep into the hearts of the faithful and judge the depth of the repose they have found as they make their way toward the Lord while growing weak in themselves, and he can say, "There is rest for those wearied of their strength." This is as if he said openly, 'There light and peace reward those whom inner growth had left wearied here.' It should not bother you that he describes the light as being not "here" but "there," for he judges that the light which embraces the elect is indeed the place for us. So the psalmist saw the unchangeableness of eternity and said, "You are the same and your years do not pass away." Then he adds, indicating that this is the place of the elect, "The sons of your servants shall dwell there." For God who embraces all things but has no place of his own is a kind of abiding placeless place for us as we come to him. When we reach that place we see how troubled was even our peace of mind in this life; for if the just are already at peace by comparison with the wicked, by comparison with the true peace within, they are far from being at peace in truth.
468
(Jb 3,18)
Although no tumult of fleshly desires possesses the just, the annoyances that come of the flesh's corruption still bind them with harsh chains while they are in this life: for it is written, "The body which is corrupted grieves the spirit and the earthly dwelling place depresses the senses that think on many things." To the extent that they are yet mortal, they are weighed down with the weight of corruption and are bound and tied to its annoyances, because they have not yet risen with the freedom of uncorruptible life. Some trouble they feel in the mind, some in the body, and daily they sweat out an inner combat against themselves.
Is it not a harsh chain of trouble that binds the mind which takes naturally and lazily to ignorance and is only educated with trouble and toil? It is forced to raise itself, would rather lie prostrate, can scarcely be lifted from the lowest level, and when it has been lifted it slips back directly. Triumphing over itself with difficulty, it catches sight of what is above; but stunned by the light which shines on it there, it flees from it.
Is it not a harsh chain of trouble that binds those whom the flesh plagues with heated struggles when the spirit is on fire with all its zeal to seek the haven of peace that lies within? For even if the flesh does not oppose the mind openly, as though on a battlefield, still it goes grumbling somewhere behind like a prisoner. It defiles the purity of beautiful repose in the heart with its timorous but foul clamor. Even if the elect vanquish all things heroically, when they look for the security of inner peace, they still have the annoyance of living with the flesh they have already defeated.
Even if we except these cases, the elect still have to put up with the demands of external necessity. Hunger and thirst and fatigue are chains of corruption that cannot be loosed except in that glory of immortality by which our mortality is transformed. We fill the body with food lest it grow weak and emaciated; then we weaken it with fasting lest it should be a trouble to us when filled. We exercise it moving about lest it perish for want of exercise; but then we must keep still lest we give way to the body's activities entirely. We protect it with a covering of clothes lest the cold kill it, then throw off the clothes we had sought lest the heat burn us up. Taking care of all these contingencies is a kind of servitude to our own corruptibility, if only in the way that a variety of faithful services are needed to sustain the body, because concern for our weakness and changeableness drags us down.
So it is well said through Paul, "The creature is subject to vanity, unwillingly but hopefully, for the sake of the one who subjected it, because even that creature will be freed from the servitude of corruption by the liberty of the glory of sons of God." The creature is subjected to vanity against its will because mankind willingly abandoned his original state of constancy and is now weighed down by the burden of just mortality, yet is unwillingly enslaved to the corruption of mutability. But this creature is then snatched from the servitude of corruption when he rises again incorruptible and is joined to the glory of the sons of God. So the elect are here bound in annoying ways, because they are still burdened by the penalty of corruption; but when we put off the corruptible flesh, we are freed from the chains of annoyance that now enmesh us. We long to be in the presence of God already but we are still hindered by our ties to this mortal body. Rightly therefore we are said to be bound because we still do not have the free access to God that we desire. Paul put it well, exclaiming that he longed for eternity but that he was still carrying around the burden of his corruption in bondage, saying, "I long to be unbound and to be with Christ." He would not seek to be unbound unless he saw that he was already bound. Because he saw clearly that these chains would be broken at the time of the resurrection, the prophet rejoiced as if they were already broken, saying, "You have broken my chains, to you shall I sacrifice an offering of praise."
So let the holy man consider the way converted sinners are received by the light within, and let him say, "There the pitiless have left off from their uproar." Let him think that those who are worn out by the demands of holy desire find deeper repose within and let him say, "And there is rest for those wearied of their strength." Let him think that those who have been freed at once of all the chains of their corruption shall achieve the incorruptible joys of liberty and let him say, "And the ones who have been bound all the same without annoyance." It is well put, "the ones who have been bound," because when the ever-present joy is felt, everything that will come to pass and all that passes away will seem to be in the past. When the end of things is expected, all that passes is taken as already past. But he is telling us of the experiences here in the meantime of those whom inner peace will receive.
Gregorius Moralia EN 454