Gregorius Moralia EN 528


XII. In answer, Eliphaz the Themanite said, 'If we begin to speak with you, perhaps you will take it badly.'


529 (Jb 4,1)

 We have already said what the translations of these names mean. Because we are in a hurry to reach material not yet discussed, we will not repeat what is already set out. Therefore we should carefully note that those who have the appearance of heretics begin gently, saying, "if we begin to speak with you, perhaps you will take it badly." For heretics are afraid to provoke their audience at the outset, for fear of being listened to carefully.  They keep from affronting their hearers, to seize and take advantage of their negligence. What they say is almost always mild, but what follows then is harsh. So now the friends of Job begin with reverent and gentle speech, but soon shoot out shafts of bitter invective. Similarly, the roots of thorns are soft but still from that softness they bring forth things that pierce.



 XIII. But who can restrain words once they are conceived? 


530
(
Jb 4,1)

 There are three kinds of men, different from one another by degrees according to their qualities.

There are some who imagine wicked things to say and whom no heavy silence can keep from speech. And there are those who think of wickedness but restrain themselves with forceful silence. And there are some who are strengthened by the habit of virtue and have reached that height on which they never even think in their hearts of wicked things to repress and keep silent about. We see what category Eliphaz belongs to, because he cannot keep the speech he has conceived to himself. In this way he indicates that he knows he is going to give offense by his speech.



And he would not have wished to restrain the words he cannot check, if he did not know the wounds they would inflict. Good men rein in the heedless word with the bridle of counsel and they take great care against letting loose the tongue's wantonness and wounding the hearers' conscience with careless speech. So it is well said through Solomon, "Who looses the water is the source of strife." For water is loosed when the flow of the tongue is unchecked; the one who looses the water is made the source of strife, because the origin of discord is supplied by carelessness of speech. Wicked men are light of thought and headlong in speech, never thinking to keep silent and think over what they say. But what such a flighty conscience imagines, the flightier tongue publishes immediately. So now Eliphaz knows from his own experience what he predicates hopelessly of all men, saying, "But who can restrain words once they are conceived?"




XIV. Lo, you have taught many people, and strengthened weary hands.


531
Your words have fortified the indecisive, and you have comforted trembling knees. (
Jb 4,3-4)

If the historical text is studied, the reader takes great profit from seeing that the quarreling friends, accusing Job with wounding charges of vice, also bring forth testimony to his virtues. There is never so strong a witness for a life as the praise of one who means to accuse. Let us consider then the heights achieved by this man, teaching the ignorant, strengthening the weary, fortifying the indecisive amid all the cares of his household, with all his wealth to look after, with his children to care for, with all the demands on his energy, still giving himself to the instruction of others. Busy with all these things, he still freely served in the office of teacher: he governed temporal affairs and preached eternity; he showed righteousness of life by his deeds and urged it by his words.  But heretics, or any wicked men, when they mention the virtues of the just, try to turn them into material for accusations. So Eliphaz takes this opportunity to attack blessed Job for the things he has been praising.




 XV. But now a blow has befallen you and you have failed; it has touched you and you are in turmoil.


532 (Jb 4,5)

Wicked men attack the life of the good in two ways, claiming either that they have spoken wrongly or that they have failed to live up to what they have said. So blessed Job later will be accused by his friends for what he says; but here he is charged with not having kept to his word when his word was right.  Sometimes the words of the just, and sometimes their deeds, are attacked by the reprobate, to make them either fall silent in the face of abuse or succumb to a life of blameworthiness, convicted by the testimony of their own words. And note that first they praise his speech and only later complain about the weakness of his life. Wicked men, fearing they may be publicly seen to be bad, speak well of the just sometimes, when they know that what they say is already known to others. But as we have said, they use this to increase the burden of their accusations and expect their criticism to be believed because they have also spoken in praise. By seeming to praise goodness devotedly, they succeed all the more in presenting charges of evil as if true. They use the language of praise in the service of defamation, wounding the righteous just where a little earlier they had been superficially offering praise.

 But often they first despise the goodness of the just, then make believe that it has vanished and complain of the loss. So Eliphaz counts up the virtues of the holy man which he claims have been lost, then adds:




 XVI. Your fear, your strength, your patience, and the perfection of your ways.


533
(
Jb 4,6)

He adds this all to his earlier statement, "But now a blow has befallen you and you have failed; it has touched you and you are in turmoil."

He claims that all Job's virtues have vanished at once, blaming Job himself that he lies there hounded by the lash.  But note carefully that though his charges are inappropriate, he still catalogues the virtues in a fitting order. He distinguishes four stages of the virtues of Job's life, connnecting strength to fear, patience to strength, and perfection to patience.

We begin on God's way with fear and end with strength. Just as in the world's way, audacity produces strength, so on God's way audacity produces feebleness; and just as in the world's way, fear produces feebleness, so on God's way fear begets strength, as Solomon attests, saying, "In fear of the Lord is the confidence of strength." The confidence of strength is present in fear of the Lord because our mind despises more vehemently all the fears that arise from temporal things just to the extent that it has truly submitted in fear to the creator of all temporal things. When our mind solidly grounded in fear of the Lord, it finds nothing more to fear, for when it is joined in legitimate fear to the creator of all, it is lifted by his power above all things.

 But strength is only shown in adversity, so soon patience is called for in the wake of strength. We can show that we have truly attained strength if we bear evil vigorously, for the man whom iniquity from outside could lay low must not have been so strong himself. Whoever cannot bear opposition, lies wounded by the sword of his own faint-heartedness. But because patience begets perfection, perfection of his ways is mentioned immediately after patience. The man who is truly perfect is the one who is not impatient in the face of the imperfection of his neighbor. Whoever abandons his neighbor, unable to bear his imperfection, is his own witness that he has not yet achieved full perfection. So in the gospel Truth says, "By your patience you shall win possession of your souls." How do we possess our souls except by living perfectly in all things, controlling all the motions of the mind from the citadel of virtue? Thus whoever preserves his patience, possesses his soul, for he is made strong against all adversity to the extent that he has controlled himself. By besting himself so laudably, he renders himself unbeatably strong. When he overcomes himself in his pleasures, he prepares himself to face adversity unbeaten. But to this invective, Eliphaz now adds some exhortation:




XVII. I beseech you to recall what innocent man ever perished, or when the righteous were ever destroyed.


534 (Jb 4,7)

 Whether heretics (whom we have said the friends of Job stand for) or any wicked men make unrestrained rebukes, their exhortations are just as reprehensible.

He says, "What innocent man ever perished, or when were the righteous ever destroyed?" But often here the innocent perish and the righteous are wiped out completely; but as they perish, they are preserved to share in eternal glory. For if no innocent man ever perished, the prophet would not have said, "The just man perished and there is no one who thinks twice about it." If God in his providence did not snatch away the righteous, Wisdom would never have said of the just man, "He is snatched away lest malice should taint his understanding." If no punishment ever struck the just, Peter would not have proclaimed, "It is time for judgment to begin with the house of God." It is the truly righteous who, out of love for the home above, are ready to face all the adversities of this life. Whoever fears to suffer adversity here for the sake of the good that is eternal is not really righteous.

 But Eliphaz does not think that the righteous are destroyed or that the innocent perish here, because often those who serve God not out of hope of celestial glory but to win an earthly reward, create for themselves the thing they seek. And when they make bold to teach and preach a purely earthly kind of contentment, they show by all their deeds what they love.




XVIII. But instead I have seen those who work iniquity and sow sorrows,


535
and reap them, perish at a breath from God, swallowed up by the spirit of his anger. (
Jb 4,8-9)

We sow sorrows with fraudulent speech; we reap them when our words prevail. Certainly those who do wickedness are sowing sorrows, and they reap their sorrows when they are punished for that wickedness; for the fruit of sorrow is the punishment of damnation. But when it is immediately added that those who sow and reap sorrows perish at a breath from God and are swallowed up by the spirit of his wrath, we see that in this place the reaping of sorrow is not taken as the punishment but as the complete achievement of wickedness, for the penalty of that harvest is brought down by the spirit of divine wrath. So they sow their sorrows and they reap them here, because what they do is wrong, and they prosper in their wrongfulness. But it is said of the wicked man through the psalmist, "His ways are tainted for all time; let your judgments be taken away from his face, let him lord it over all his enemies"--of whom it is said a little later, "Labor and sorrow beneath his tongue." Thus he sows sorrows when he does wrong, and he reaps them when he prospers in this world from his perversity.

 So how do those who are allowed to continue here for a longer time, and more happily, than the just, perish at a breath from God?

Of them it is said again through the psalmist, "They are not among the labors of men and they are not punished with men." So Jeremiah says, "Wherefore does the way of the impious prosper?" Because, as it is written: "The Lord is patient in repaying:" often he tolerates for a long time those whom he damns forever, but sometimes he strikes hastily, when he hurries to console the weakness of the innocent. Sometimes therefore almighty God allows the unjust to prevail for a long time so that the life of the just may be purged clean, but sometimes he swiftly slays the unjust to strengthen the hearts of the innocent at their passing. For if now he struck down all those who worked ill, on whom would the last judgment be passed? But if he smote none of them at all, who would have believed that God cares for human affairs? Sometimes, therefore, he strikes the unjust to show that he does not leave wickedness unavenged, but sometimes he bears with the wicked for a long time to suggest to those who think of these things the judgment for which he is reserving them.



536 So if this sentence of destruction pronounced upon the unjust is not spoken generally of all men at the end of the present age, it is by and large without force and truth; but then it will be a true sentence, when there is no longer any postponement left for iniquity. This is perhaps the more correct way to understand it, for neither do the innocent perish nor do the righteous meet destruction: even if the flesh is worn down here, in the sight of the eternal judge it is restored to true health; and those who sow sorrows and reap them perish at a breath from God because the more perversely they advance in wickedness here, the more harshly they will be struck with the damnation to follow. But since it is prefaced to this statement, "Recall," it is clear that he is calling to mind some past event, not prophesying the future. Eliphaz would speak more truly if he believed that these things would afflict the unjust generally at the last punishment.



537 But it is important that we examine carefully what it means to speak of God's breath.

When we breathe, we draw air in from outside and then restore what we have drawn in by exhaling. God, then, is said to breathe retribution and revenge because he conceives the judgment of his counsel within based on causes drawn from without, and from this inner counsel he sends forth his judgment to those outside. Something is drawn in from outside, as if God were breathing, when he sees our wickedness outwardly and arranges his judgment inwardly. And again breath is sent out from within, as if God were breathing, when he conceives counsel within and sends forth the judgment of damnation. It is well said therefore that whoever sows sorrows perishes at a breath of God, because to the extent they act wickedly outwardly, they are rightly smitten within.

 Certainly when God is said to breathe (because mention is immediately made of the spirit of his wrath) the punishment itself can be taken as intended by the mention of his breath.

When we are angry, we are inflamed with the breath of fury; so to reveal the Lord thinking of punishment, he is said to have breathed in his wrath. It is not that he suffers any change or mutability in his nature but, for all his long patience, when the sinner finally receives his punishment the God who is tranquil in himself seems stormy to those who perish. The reprobate mind, seeing the judge hostile to its acts, thinks that the judge is upset, while in the sight of the judge it is the mind itself that is upset by its crime. But after Eliphaz has given expression to this mild astonishment, he adds open words of rebuke, saying,




XIX. The roar of the lion and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the lion cubs are ground down.


538 (Jb 4,10)

What is the roar of the lion if not, as we suggested a little earlier, the man's sternness? What is the voice of the lioness but the chattering of the wife? What are the teeth of the cubs if not the children's ravenous hunger? For this mention of teeth indicates that the children died when they were feasting. The unyielding Eliphaz rejoices over their grinding down as if proclaiming that they were justly condemned. He then doubled the harshness of his attack by adding,



XX. The tiger perished because he had no prey, and the lion cubs are scattered.


539
(
Jb 4,11)

Who can he be suggesting, with the tiger's name, to be of various colors, if not blessed Job, whom he accuses of being marked with the spots of hypocrisy?

Every hypocrite wishes to seem righteous but cannot show himself clean in all things. Though his hypocrisy pretends certain virtues and gives way secretly to the vices, suddenly some of those hidden vices will break out in the open and by their irregularity show that the mottled coat of hypocrisy is just a cover put on to obstruct the vision. It is often then a matter of remark that a man who is distinguished for great virtues should also be stained by many reprobate acts. But every hypocrite is a tiger because the pure color that hypocrisy pretends is varied by black outbreaks of vice.

 Often, for example, a man is praised for the purity of his chastity, but is stained with the filth of avarice. Often someone is seen displaying the virtue of generosity, but is befouled with spots of lust. Often a man is dressed in a fine show of chastity and generosity but is darkened over with atrocious cruelty masquerading as zealous justice. Often generosity, chastity and compassion are laid on to make a fair appearance, but are blotched by a mixture of the darkness of pride. And so it happens that the hypocrite does not show a pure appearance in himself, what with his intermixture of vices, just as the tiger is unable to show a solid color on his pelt. The hypocrite snatches his prey like a tiger, when he claims the glory of human applause for himself. He rejoices in this stolen praise the way a tiger gluts himself on his prey. (Praise is fittingly described as the prey of the hypocrites, for prey, or booty, is the result of taking what is another's.) But every hypocrite, by pretending to lead a life of justice, is snatching for himself the praise of the just, and surely what he takes is another's. So Eliphaz, because he knew that blessed Job had done praiseworthy things in the days when he was yet untouched, believed that he had only done those things as a hypocrite, letting them go when trouble struck, so he says, "The tiger perished because he had no prey." As if to say: 'The spottedness of your hypocrisy is wiped out because the adulation of praise is taken away; and now your hypocrisy does not have its prey because it was struck by God and no longer enjoys the applause of men.'



540 But in the translation of the seventy interpreters

it does not say "the tiger" but "the ant-lion perished because it had no prey." The ant-lion is a very small animal, enemy of the ant, which hides itself under the sand and kills ants carrying bits of grain, and then eats the ants. Ant-lion is said in Latin to be either "lion of ants" or at least, more precisely, "both ant and lion." It is rightly said to be both ant and lion, because by comparison to flying things, or to other small animals, it is an ant, but to the ants it is a lion. It devours them like a lion, but it is devoured by the other animals like an ant. When therefore Eliphaz says, "The ant-lion perished," what is he attacking in blessed Job under this name if not both fear and boldness? As if to say openly: 'You have not been struck unjustly, because you are timid against the strong, but bold against the weak.' As if to say openly: 'Against the clever, fear restrained you, but against the simple, cockiness puffed you up. But the ant-lion does not have its prey because your timid pride is beset by blows and kept from wounding others.' But because we said the friends of blessed Job stood for heretics, it is important for us to say how these words of Eliphaz can be interpreted allegorically.




XXI. The roar of the lion and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the lion cubs are ground down.


541 (Jb 4,10)

Because the nature of any particular thing is made up of diverse elements, in sacred scripture one thing can legitimately signify various other things. The lion has strength, but also savagery:  by his strength he stands for the Lord, by his savagery the devil. So it is said of the Lord, "The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered, the root of David." And it is written of the devil, "Your adversary has circled like a lion roaring, seeking someone to devour." The name of the lioness sometimes indicates the holy church, sometimes Babylon. For boldness against adversity, the church is called a lioness, as in blessed Job's own words when he speaks of Judea abandoned by the church, then says, "The sons of the peddlers have not trampled it, nor has the lioness passed through it." But sometimes the name of the lioness stands for the city of this world, that is, Babylon, which rages with immense cruelty against the life of the innocent, which joins with the ancient enemy as if coupled with a savage lion, taking the seed of his wicked temptation and bearing reprobate sons from itself like the devil, as if they were nasty lion cubs. But lion cubs are the reprobate people sired to a wicked life by the sins of evil spirits. All together they make up the city of this world we mentioned, this Babylon, and yet these individual sons of Babylon are not the lioness herself but her cubs.

Just as the whole church is called Zion and the individual saints are called sons of Zion, so also the reprobate individuals are called the sons of Babylon, and Babylon itself stands for all of them together.



542 But holy men, as long as they are in this life,

watch over themselves with care and circumspection, lest the lion on the prowl should creep up on them, that is, lest the ancient enemy lurking under some pretense of virtue should kill them. They watch that the voice of the lioness not sound in their ears, that is, that the glory of Babylon not turn their hearts away from love of the celestial home. They watch that the teeth of the cubs not bite them, that is, that they not allow the reprobate to find a place in their hearts with their enticements. On the other hand, the heretics are already confident of their own holiness, because they think that the merits of their life have already overcome everything. So it is now said, "The roar of the lion and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the lion cubs are ground down." As if to say openly: 'We are worn down by no whips because we have trampled the strength of the ancient enemy, and the lust for earthly glory, and the enticements of all the reprobate with the triumphant merits of our life.'




XXII. The tiger perished because he had no prey, and the lion cubs are scattered.


543 (Jb 4,11)

The name of the tiger means the same thing indicated by mention of the lion, for Satan is called a lion for his cruelty, and for the variousness of his manifold cleverness he is not inaptly called a tiger. Sometimes he presents himself, ruined as he is, to human senses and sometimes he presents himself as if he were an angel of light. Sometimes he tempts the minds of the foolish with blandishments, sometimes leads them to sin through fear.  Sometimes he openly tries to woo us to vice, sometimes he covers his suggestions with an appearance of virtue. This beast spotted with such diversity is rightly called a tiger, though called by the seventy interpreters as we said before, an ant-lion. That animal hides in the dust, as we said, to kill ants carrying bits of grain. So also the apostate angel, cast down on earth from heaven, ambushes the minds of the just as they prepare for themselves nourishment on the path leading to good works. And when he defeats them from ambush, he is like an ant-lion unexpectedly killing ants bearing grain. But he is rightly called an ant-lion, that is lion-and-ant: for he is a lion to the ants, but to the birds a mere ant, because to those who yield to him the ancient enemy is strong, but to those who resist him he is feeble. If his suggestions find assent, he is as unstoppable as the lion; but if they are resisted, he is stepped on like an ant. To some therefore he is a lion, to others an ant. Minds devoted to the flesh can scarcely endure his cruelty, while spiritual minds step on his weakness with the foot of virtue. So heretics, because they take pride in their presumed holiness, say as if rejoicing, "The ant-lion," or at least, "The tiger perished, because he had no prey." As if to say openly:  'The old adversary does not have prey in us because for our purposes he already lies beaten.' So he is mentioned again with the name of ant-lion or tiger because he had already been said to be trampled on in the roar of the lion: for whatever is said out of joy is often repeated. The soul doubles its voices when it rejoices. So in true joy the psalmist often repeats that he knows he has been heard, saying, "The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping; the Lord has heard my prayer; the Lord has accepted my pleading."



544 But holy men, when they are happy to have escaped from certain vices,

chasten themselves with a great fear in the midst of their happiness: for even if they have been snatched from the gusts of one storm, they know that they are still adrift on the fickle waves of an unreliable sea. They rejoice in hope to tremble in fear, and tremble in fear to rejoice in the confidence of hope. So it is said through the same psalmist, "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in him with fear." On the other hand, there are those who are swollen up with the appearance of holiness; when they overcome some one vice, soon they prop up their mind with pride and boast as though of the perfection of their whole life. And because they have been perhaps snatched from the danger of the storm this one time, they forget that they are still journeying at sea. They think they are great in all things and think that they have overcome the ancient enemy once and for all. They think that all others are beneath them because they think that they have surpassed one and all in their wisdom.  So our text then reads,




 XXIII. Then a hidden word was spoken to me.


545 (Jb 4,12)

Heretics pretend they hear a hidden word, in order to cast a veil of reverence over their preaching in the minds of their hearers.  So they preach to make their preaching seem to be as holy as it is obscure. They shun ordinary knowledge lest they might seem no different from others. They are always looking for new doctrines which others do not know, so that they can boast of themselves to less clever minds for their unique knowledge. They claim their knowledge is hidden, so that they can claim to have come by it secretly in order to be able to work wonders. So in Solomon there is a woman who stands for the heretics, saying, "Stolen waters are sweeter and the hidden bread is sweeter." So this also is added:

And like a thief my ear gathered in the stream of its whisper. (Jb 4,12)

They gather in the stream of the whisper like a thief, because they lose the benefits of knowledge shared with others and approach their doctrines without entering through the door, as the Lord attests and says, "Whoever does not enter through the door into the sheepfold, but climbs in from some other direction, he is a thief and a robber." The man who wants to learn of the power of God but who avoids the open door of public preaching and seeks gaps in the wall for his wicked mind is the one who gathers in the streams of the divine whisper like a thief. But because the thief and robber, who comes in from some other direction both loves darkness and hates bright light, it is rightly added,




XXIV. In the fright of a night vision when sleep usually covers men.


546 (Jb 4,13)

Often heretics who try to utter loftier doctrines are themselves the witnesses that they are saying things that are untrue, for in a night vision we do not see clearly. They say that they have picked up little glimmers of whisper in the fright of a night vision because they claim that they can scarcely grasp themselves the things they pass on to others as if lofty and true. Thus we should observe how clear and certain these things can be to the hearers, when they barely see them themselves.

There is a wonderful pattern to the way they proclaim lofty things and show themselves foolish in the process, tangled up in the words of their own supposed exaltation. But what follows shows just how far they are puffed up with their unique knowledge: "when sleep usually covers men." This is as if it were said openly by the heretics, 'When men sleep below, we keep watch to grasp what is from above, because we know those things which other men, sluggish of heart, fail to reach for and grasp.' As if to say openly, 'Where our understanding lifts itself up, the sense of other men sleeps on.' But sometimes when they see that they are despised by their audience, they pretend to be afraid themselves of what they say. So it follows:




XXV. Fear held me, and trembling, and all my bones were terrified.


547 (Jb 4,14)

Because they want their exalted doctrines to make them seem wonderful to others, they make as if to fear what they have imagined. Since it is easier to hear than to speak, they are eager to bring forth teachings they then pretend they can bearly stand to hear themselves. So it is added further,



XXVI. And when the spirit passed by in my presence,


548
the hair of my flesh stood on end. Someone stood there whose face I did not know. (
Jb 4,15-16)

To show that they have known things that are incomprehensible, they claim that the spirit did not stand still but passed by them. They pretend not to have recognized the face so that they can claim to be known to him who lies beyond the human power of comprehension.




XXVII. His image before my eyes, and I heard a voice like a soft breeze.


549 (Jb 4,16)

Often heretics create for themselves an image of the God they cannot see in the spirit and they testify to having heard his voice like a soft breeze, because they want to rejoice in knowing his secrets, as if they were closer to God than others. They do not teach the things that God says publicly, but things that have been breathed into their ears as if secretly.

We say these things therefore to indicate what must be understood in the words of Eliphaz under the appearance of heresy. But because the friends of blessed Job would not have been friends of such a man if they had not clearly learned something of the truth, however much they should be in error about their abusive criticism of Job, they do not altogether totter and fall in their knowledge of truth. So let us repeat these words from a little before so that we may understand precisely how the things they have said about how to grasp the truth can be spoken truthfully by those whose thoughts are right.  Sometimes, of course, heretics say things that are true and sublime, not because they have received them from God but because they have learned them in quarreling with the church. They take them not for the improvement of their own conscience but to display their own knowledge. So it often happens that they know how to say high truths but do not know how to live the truth they speak. Whether therefore we take them as heretics, who have the words but not the ways of knowledge, or simply as friends of blessed Job, who certainly could have experienced something of the truth which he sought to proclaim, let us go over the things again we have already rushed through, considering them now more carefully. Thus when the words of Eliphaz are more carefully discussed, it will be shown how great was his knowledge, even though he did not maintain humility in his knowledge, claiming for himself particularly a gift that belongs to all. For he says,




XXVIII. Then a hidden word was spoken to me.


550 (Jb 4,12)

The hidden word is the invisible son of whom John speaks, "In the beginning was the Word." He himself indicates that it was hidden when he adds, "And the Word was with God and God was the Word." But this hidden word is spoken to the minds of the elect when the power of the only-begotten son is manifested to those who believe. But the hidden word can also be taken as the language of inner inspiration, of which John says, "His anointing teaches you about all things." This inspiration touches the human mind and lifts it up and represses worldly thoughts, inflaming it with eternal longings to such an extent that nothing more will be pleasing to it except the things that are above, and that it will despise all the clamoring things here below that take their origins from the corruption of humanity. To hear the hidden word therefore is to conceive the language of the holy spirit in the heart. This language cannot be known except by one who is capable of possessing it. So in the voice of Truth it is said of this hidden speech, "I shall ask the Father and he will give another Paraclete to you, to abide with you forever, the spirit of truth which the world cannot receive." Just as this Paraclete, the other consoler of the human race after the ascension of the Mediator, is invisible in himself, so he fires every person he fills with desire for invisible things. And since worldly hearts love only the things they can see, the world does not receive this comforter because it does not rise to the love of what is unseen. Worldly minds let themselves go abroad in their desires and thus close up their hearts to his coming.  And since there are few indeed among the human race who are cleansed of the taint of earthly desires and thus lie open to receive the holy spirit after this purgation, this word is said to be hidden, because it is conceived in the heart of a few, but unknown by the greatest part of mankind. At least this breathing of the holy spirit is a hidden word, because it can be felt but cannot be expressed in the noises of speech. Since therefore divine inspiration lifts up the mind without such noise, a hidden word is heard because the word of the spirit sounds silently in the ear of the heart.




Gregorius Moralia EN 528