Book Two
I.1 Holy scripture appears to the mind's eye as a kind of mirror
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).
II.2. But one day, when the sons of God had come to be present
before the Lord, even Satan was in their midst. (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:
III.3 But one day, when the sons of God had come to be present
before the Lord, even Satan was in their midst. (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.
IV.4. Even Satan was in their midst. (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?
5. 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.
V.6. The Lord said to him, 'Whence do you come?' (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.
VI.7. Satan answers and says, 'I have gone all around the earth,
passing through it to and fro.' (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.
VII.8. 'Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like
him on the earth, simple and upright, who fears God and draws back
from all evil-doing.' (1.8)
Because we have gone over carefully before what God says of Job,
that he is innocent and upright, fearing God and drawing back from
all evil-doing, we will not repeat ourselves, lest by going over
the same thing a second time we should be retarded in getting to
what remains. We must note carefully how it says that the Lord
spoke to Satan and Satan answered to the Lord: we must consider
what sort of speech this is. It is certainly not true either that
the Lord, who is the highest and most boundless spirit, or that
Satan, who is clothed with no fleshly nature, brings forth the
sound of a voice in the human manner, by expanding the belly's sack
with a blast of wind and forcing the air through the throat's
pipes. But when an incomprehensible being speaks to an invisible
being, our mind should lift itself up from the ways of corporeal
speech to consider the lofty and unknown modes of inner speech.
When we want to express outwardly what we think inwardly, we press
our thoughts out through the throat's pipes with the sound of our
voice. In the eyes of others we stand here, inside the hidden
places of the mind, as though behind a wall of flesh. When we want
to reveal ourselves, we use our speech to go out and show what we
are like within.
But spiritual natures are not like us, not made in our double
fashion of body and spirit. Thus we must note that when that
incorporeal nature is said to speak, its speech is not always of
one and the same sort. God speaks to the angels in one way, the
angels to God another way; God speaks one way to the souls of the
blessed, and the souls of the blessed to God another way; God
speaks to the devil one way, the devil another way to God.
9. Because bodies pose no obstacles between spiritual natures, God
speaks to the holy angels by the very fact that he shows his unseen
secrets to their hearts, so that in the contemplation of truth they
might read what they ought to do. The true joys of contemplation
are like commands of the Lord's voice. What they see and what they
hear are the same. So when God pours out into their hearts angry
revenge against human pride, he says, "Come, let us go down and
confound their tongues." It is said to those who cling to him,
"Come," for never to weaken in contemplation of God is itself to
grow in contemplation constantly, and never to draw back in the
heart is itself to be always coming to him, but by a stable kind of
motion. He says to them, "Let us go down and confound their
tongues." Angels go up when they see their creator; they go down
when they repress with discipline and judgment the struggle of
creatures for illicit things. When God says, therefore, "Let us go
down and confound their tongues," he is showing them in himself
what is right for them to do and through the power of inner vision
he inspires in their minds by hidden means judgments worthy to be
declared.
10. Angels speak to God in another way, as in the Apocalypse of
John: "Worthy is the Lamb, who is slain, to receive virtue and
divinity and wisdom." The voice of the angels in praise of their
creator is nothing more than the wonderment of inner contemplation.
Merely to have been astonished at the miracles of divine strength
is to have spoken. When the heart is stirred with reverence, great
is the clamor of the voice that rises to the ears of the boundless
spirit. That voice reveals itself as if by distinct words when it
shapes itself in the countless forms of wonderment. God therefore
speaks to the angels when he manifests his inmost will to their
vision, but the angels speak to the Lord when they rise up in
wonderment at that which they see to be above themselves.
11. God speaks in one way to the souls of the blessed, and in
another way the souls of the blessed speak to God. In another
place in the Apocalypse of John it is said, "I saw under the altar
the souls of people slain on account of the word of God, and on
account of the witness they bore. And they cried out with a great
voice saying, 'How long, Lord, holy and true, do you abstain from
judgment and when do you take vengeance for our blood from those
who live on the earth?'" And it is immediately added, "There are
given to each of them white stoles and it is said to them that they
should repose yet a little while until the number of their fellow
servants and brothers should be filled." What can it mean for the
souls to make a prayer for vengeance except that they long for the
day of last judgment and the resurrection of the bodies that have
passed away? Great is their clamor, great is their desire. Each
one cries out the less, the less he desires. Each one sends up so
much greater a roar to the ears of the boundless spirit the more
fully he pours himself into that desire. The souls' desires are
their words, for if desire did not become word, the prophet would
not say, "Your ear has heard the desire of their hearts."
But since there is one kind of motion in the soul that seeks,
another in the soul that is sought, and since the souls of the
blessed cleave to the inner bosom of God to find peace: how can it
be said that they ask something, when they are in no way separate
from God's will? How can they ask something, when it is certain
that they know the will of God and the things to come? But they
are said to ask something of him while placed in God's lap, not
because they want something that differs from the will of Him whom
they contemplate, but because insofar as they cling to him ardently
they are given by him the more to ask from him that which they know
he wants to give. They drink from him to answer their inner
thirst; and in a way so far incomprehensible to us they are
satisfied by the foreknowledge of that which their hunger seeks.
They would be in conflict with the will of the creator if they did
not want the things they see him want; and they would cling to him
the less if they asked with feebler desire for the things he is
willing to give.
And so to them the divine response is given: "Rest yet a little
while until the number of your fellow servants and brethren should
be filled." To say to the souls that ask, "Rest yet a little
while," is for foreknowledge itself to breathe the solace of
consolation on the ardor of desire. Thus the voice of the souls of
the blessed is the very thing they desire in their love, and the
word of God in answer is precisely the confirmation he makes to
their desire for certain vengeance. His answer, that they should
await the gathering of their brethren, fills up the long delays of
expectation in their hearts, so that
while they seek the resurrection of the flesh they should be
thankful for the increase of their numbers by the accession of
their brethren.
12. God speaks one way to the devil and the devil speaks another
way to God. God speaks to the devil by assailing his ways and
deeds with implicitly severe criticism, as when he says here,
"Whence do you come?" The devil's answer to God is his inability
to hide anything from omnipotent majesty. So here he says, "I have
gone all around the earth, passing through it to and fro." For him
to say what he has done acknowledges that he cannot hide his deeds
from the eyes of God. Note that in this passage we learn that God
speaks to the devil in four different ways, while the devil has
three ways of addressing God. The four ways in which God speaks to
the devil are: by condemning his unjust ways; by throwing in the
devil's face the righteousness of the chosen ones; by letting the
devil try his hand against their innocence; and sometimes by
forbidding him from daring to tempt them. He condemns the devil's
unjust ways (as we have already said) when he says, "Whence do you
come?" He throws in the devil's face the righteousness of the
elect by saying, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is
none like him on all the earth." He lets the devil try his hand
against innocence when he says, "So: all that he has is in your
hand." And again he prohibits him from tempting when he says, "but
only do not harm the man himself."
The devil speaks to God in three different ways: when he tells of
his own deeds; when he attacks the innocence of the elect with
trumped-up charges; and when he demands a chance to tempt their
innocence. He tells of his own deeds when he says, "I have gone
all around the earth, passing through it to and fro." He attacks
the innocence of the elect with trumped-up charges when he says,
"Has Job feared God for nothing? Haven't you built walls around
him, and his house, and all around his possessions?" He demands a
chance to tempt their innocence when he says, "But reach out your
hand and touch his wealth, and see if he does not curse you to your
face." But it is for God to say, "Whence do you come," (as we said
above) assailing the ways of his wickedness by the force of divine
justice. It is for God to say, "Have you considered my servant
Job? For there is none like him on the earth." By justifying his
elect he makes them objects of envy for the renegade angel. It is
for God to say, "So: all that he has is in your hand." To test
the faithful he lets loose against them in hidden ways the
onslaught of the devil's malice. It is for God to say, "But only
do not harm the man himself," limiting his permission to restrain
the rush of unbounded temptation. The devil can say, "I have gone
all around the earth, passing through it to and fro," for he is
incapable of hiding the cunning of his malice from the invisible
eyes of God. It is for the devil to say, "Has Job feared God for
nothing?" complaining against goodness in the thickets of his own
thoughts, envying their success, and seeking pretext for criticism
with his envy. It is for the devil to say: "But reach out your
hand and touch his wealth," panting for the affliction of the just
with
the breath of malice. In his envy he seeks the chance to tempt
them, so he speaks as if to ask the chance to prove them faithful.
Now that we have briefly discussed the forms of inner speech, let
us now return to our place in the commentary from which we have
briefly digressed.
VIII.13. 'Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none
like him on the earth, simple and upright, who fears God and draws
back from all evil-doing.' (1.8)
In our earlier discussion we showed that the devil was proposing a
contest, not against Job, but against God. Blessed Job lay between
as the arena of their combat. If we say that Job sinned by his
words in the midst of his tribulations, we say that God (and this
is blasphemy) failed in his part of the contest. Notice how in this
passage, the devil does not seek power over Job from God before the
Lord praised Job in the sight of the devil. If God had not known
that he would persevere in justice, he would not have brought him
up at all. Nor would he hand over to the devil someone who would
perish in the trial of temptation, much less fan the flames of the
devil's envy in advance of the trial with his praises.
14. But when the ancient enemy could not find wickedness in Job to
accuse, he tried to twist good things around to make them evil.
When he is vanquished by deeds, he examines our words to find
matter for reproach. When he cannot find that matter in our words,
he attempts to besmirch the heart's intent; as though good deeds do
not come from a good spirit and therefore ought not to be
considered just by a judge. When he sees a tree bearing fruit and
flourishing in the summer's heat, he tries to plant the worm at its
root, for he says:
IX.15. Has Job feared God for nothing? Haven't you built walls
around him and his house and all around his possessions? Haven't
you blessed the work of his hands? His wealth has grown and grown.
(1.9-10)
This is as if to say openly, 'What wonder is it if the one who has
received the good things of the world should conduct himself
innocently in return? He would really be innocent if he persisted
in goodness in the midst of adversity. Why is he called great, if
every single good deed is accompanied by an abundant material
reward?' The guileful adversary sees that the saintly man had
acted well in prosperity, so he hastens to find fault with him
before the judge in adversity. Thus it is said by the angel's
voice in the Apocalypse: "The accuser of our brethren is
overthrown; day and night he stood accusing them in God's
presence." Holy scripture often uses day as a symbol of
prosperity, night as a symbol of adversity. To accuse by day and
by night is to try to render us guilty, now in prosperity, now in
adversity. The devil accuses us by day when he shows that we have
used our property badly; he
accuses by night when he shows that we lacked patience in
adversity. Because the whips of tribulation had not yet touched
blessed Job, he had found nothing at all by which to accuse him at
night. Because he flourished with great vigor in prosperity, the
devil pretended that he had done good things in order to gain that
prosperity. The lie was in his clever claim that Job held his
wealth not for the Lord's service, but that he worshipped the Lord
to gain the use of great wealth.
Indeed there are some who use this world prudently to enjoy God;
and there are those who try to use God casually in order to enjoy
this world. When the devil recounts God's good gifts, he thinks
that he can reduce to dust the deeds of the hardy workman. Even
while failing to attack him for his works, he hopes still to
condemn the thoughts of the mind with the lie that all his innocent
life served not his love of the Lord but a yen for earthly
prosperity. Ignorant of the strength of blessed Job, but still
knowing that adversity is a truer test of strength for everyone, he
sought the chance to tempt this man, so that the one who had walked
with sure step through the day of prosperity might perhaps stumble
in the night of adversity, to lie prostrate under the sin of
impatience in the eyes of the God who praised him.
X.16. 'But reach out your hand and touch his wealth and see if he
does not curse you to your face.' (1.11)
It is clearly to be noted that when Satan seeks to tempt the
saintly man and says again to God that he should reach out his
hand, this devil, though he swells with pride, all by himself,
against the author of all things, still does not claim for himself
the power to strike at Job. He knows that he cannot do anything of
himself, for even his existence as a spirit is not of his own
doing. This why the legion of demons about to be driven out of a
man in the gospel says, "If you cast us out, send us into that
flock of pigs." If they could not go into a flock of pigs by
themselves, what wonder is it if the devil could not touch the
house of the holy man if not through the hand of the creator?
17. You must observe that the will of Satan is always wicked but
his power to act is never unjust, for his will is of himself, but
his power to act comes from the Lord. His wicked endeavors God
only permits in a spirit of justice. So it is well put in the book
of Kings: "The evil spirit of the Lord had come upon Saul." See
how one and the same spirit is said to be 'of the Lord' and 'evil';
'of the Lord' through the just power he permits, but 'evil' by the
desire of the unjust will. This one who then can do nothing
without permission is not to be feared. The only power to be
feared is the one which allows the enemy to rage, and which the
devil's unjust will serves in the cause of a just judgment. Satan
asked for him to reach out his hand a little, because the things he
wants attacked are external. Satan does not think very much
accomplished unless he wounds Job in the soul so that, smiting him,
he might call him back from that homeland from which the devil
himself has fallen far, brought low by the weapon of his own pride.
18. But what is this text: "See if he does not curse you to your
face"? We look upon that which we love, but we turn our face away
from that which we want to avoid. What does the face of God stand
for if not the respectful gaze of his grace? He says therefore,
"But reach out your hand and touch his wealth and see if he does
not curse you to your face." This is as if to say, 'Take away the
things you have given, for if he loses the things he has gotten
from you, he will not seek the gaze of your grace when the earthly
things are taken away. If he does not have the things in which he
has taken pleasure, he will despise your favor with curses.' Truth
is not teased by this clever request but still grants it, in order
to deceive the enemy and to benefit the faithful servant by
increasing his gift in the end. Whence it is immediately added:
XI.19. 'So: all that he has is in your hand--but only do not harm
the man himself.' (1.12)
In the words of the Lord we must see how well-moderated is his holy
pity, how he both looses and checks our enemy, lets him go and
reins him in. Some things he gives him to test but others he keeps
back. "All that he has is in your hand--but only do not harm the
man himself": he hands over the wealth but still protects Job's
body (which, to be sure, he is going to hand over to the tempter
later). Still he does not let the enemy loose all at once lest Job
should break under attack from all sides. When many terrible
things befall the elect, they are arranged sequentially by the
wonderful grace of the creator so that the things that would, if
they came all heaped up at once, destroy us can nevertheless be
borne if taken one at a time. So Paul says: "Faithful is God, who
will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. With the
temptation itself, he will ordain the issue of it, so that you can
hold your own." Thus David says, "Prove me, Lord, and tempt
me"--as if he said openly, 'First measure my strength and then let
me be tempted insofar as I can bear it.'
The given text: "So: all that he has is in your hand--but only do
not harm the man himself," can be taken in another way, for God
knew his champion was staunch but still willed that his contests
against the enemy be split up so that even though victory would
come to the rugged warrior in all the contests, the enemy would
first have to come back to the Lord beaten in one contest. Then
the Lord would concede Satan another contest, so that the faithful
servant would appear the more wonderfully as a victor the more the
beaten enemy kept mounting over and over again new attacks against
him.
XII.20. And Satan went out of the Lord's presence. (1.12)
What does it mean that Satan went out of the Lord's presence? How
can he go away from the one who is everywhere? Indeed it says, "I
fill heaven and earth." And his wisdom says, "I have gone all
around the orb of heaven alone." And thus it is said of his
spirit, "The spirit of the Lord fills the earth." And thus the
Lord says again, "Heaven is my seat, but the earth is my
footstool." And again: "He measures the heaven with his palm and
he holds the whole earth in his fist." He is within the seat over
which he presides, and above it. He 'measures heaven with his palm
and holds the earth in his fist' to show that he is all outside and
all around all the things he has created (for whatever is held must
be held by someone outside). By the term 'seat' we understand that
he is within and above all things; by the term 'fist' we understand
that he is outside and below. He abides within and without, above
and below all things. He rises above in power and goes below,
supporting all things. He surrounds in his grandeur and penetrates
within by his subtlety. Ruling from above, he holds all things from
below, embracing and penetrating. He is not partly above and
partly below, or partly outside and partly within, but he is one
and the same, everywhere entire, supporting and governing,
governing and supporting, embracing and penetrating, penetrating
and embracing, ruling from above and supporting from below,
surrounding and filling, calmly ruling from above and effortlessly
supporting from below, penetrating without attenuation, surrounding
without distension. He is below and above without place, he is
broad without breadth, and he is rarefied without dissipation of
strength.
21. How then does Satan go away from one who is nowhere (in
presence of body) but everywhere (in unbounded substance)? But as
long as Satan is checked by the power of divine majesty, he cannot
exercise his eager malice--it is as though he were standing in
God's presence. He goes out from the Lord's presence because he is
freed by God from inner checks and accomplishes what he desires.
He goes out from the presence of the Lord whenever his befouled
will, long bound by the chains of discipline, goes out in freedom
to do its deeds. As we said, when he cannot accomplish what he
wills, it is as if he stands before the face of the Lord; by divine
management he is kept from the doing of evil. But he goes out from
the Lord's presence when he takes the opportunity to tempt and his
malice finds what it has sought.
XIII.22. Then one day, when the sons and daughters of Job were
feasting and drinking wine at the house of the first-born son, a
messenger came to Job who said, 'Your cattle were plowing and the
she-asses were grazing nearby; and the Sabaeans swept down and
drove them all away and put the shepherd boys to the sword. I
alone got away to tell you.' (1.13-15)
Note which times are appropriate for trials. The devil chose that
time for temptation when he found the sons of blessed Job were at
their feasting. The enemy considers not only what he does, but
when he does it. After he had the power, he sought out an apt time
for overcoming his prey. This is reported so that we will learn by
God's providence that the forerunner of tribulation is seen in the
pleasure of contentment. Note how cleverly the depredations that
have been suffered are reported. It is not said: "cattle have
been taken by the Sabaeans," but that the cattle that were taken
away were plowing--so that the sorrow would be increased by
mentioning the fruits of their labor. Whence in the Greek texts
they mention not only she-asses but pregnant she-asses as stolen,
so that the least of animals should cause the mind of the hearer
more grief, not so much from their innate value as from the mention
of their fruitfulness. Adversity affects the mind the more when
things are suddenly reported, so the scope of his groans is
increased by the rhythm of the messengers, for it follows:
XIV.23. And while he was still speaking, there came another who
said, 'The fire of God fell from heaven and laid waste sheep and
shepherds. I alone have escaped to tell you.' (1.16)
Lest Job be stirred to inadequate grief by learning of his losses,
the very words of the messengers goad him to distraction. Note how
craftily it is put, "The fire of God," as if to say, 'You suffer
the hostility of him whom you have tried to placate with so many
sacrificial victims; you bear the wrath of the one you daily sweat
and strain to serve. When he hints that the God whom Job had
served had sent this adversity, he reminds the victim of the wound
for which he might go astray: he might bring his past obsequies
back to mind and think himself to have served in vain and thus grow
haughty towards his creator. When the faithful soul sees itself
suffering adversity at the hands of men, it takes comfort in the
consolation of divine grace; but when it sees the gusts of
temptation building around it, it takes shelter inside the harbor
of the conscience, taking refuge in hope in the Lord. But the
cunning enemy, trying to smite the broad shoulders of the holy man
at one and the same time with human adversity and divine despair,
first mentions that the Sabaeans attacked and then reports that the
fire of God had fallen from heaven. Thus he tries to shut off
every avenue of consolation by showing that the one who could have
consoled the soul in adversity was among the adversaries; then the
tempted saint might see himself abandoned on all siders, attacked
on all sides, and the more boldly burst forth with blasphemy, the
more despair he felt.
XV.24. And even while this one was speaking, there came another
who said, 'The Chaldaeans formed up three robber bands and attacked
the camels, drove them away and put those herdsmen to the sword:
and I alone have escaped to tell you.' (1.17)
See how he mentions the assault of the Chaldaean bands, so that no
human hostility might be lacking. To keep the onrushing adversity
from hurting him any the less, he shows reiterated wrath from the
skies--for he adds,
25. This one was still speaking when (lo!) another came in and
said, 'While your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking
wine at the house of your first-born son, suddenly a violent wind
blew up from the desert and smashed into the four corners of the
house, which collapsed and crushed your children, and they were
killed. I alone have escaped to tell you.' (1.18-19)
The man who was not laid low by a single wound is thus smitten
here twice and thrice, so that he might be struck even to his
heart. Misfortune is reported coming from the Sabaeans, divine
hostility reported through the fire from heaven, the camels
reported stolen, the shepherds slaughtered, and the anger of divine
unhappiness appeared again when the wind sprang up to smash into
the corners of the house and kill the children. Since it is known
that the elements cannot be stirred without heavenly assent, it is
implied that the God who allowed the elements to be moved had moved
them deliberately against Job. (But Satan, once he had received
the power from God, could compel the elements to serve his own
wickedness. It ought not trouble us if a spirit come down from
above could stir the air up into winds; for we see that water and
fire continue to serve even those who have been sent as prisoners
to the mines.) The devil sought then that bad news would come,
much bad news, sudden bad news. The first time he reported bad
news, he inflicted a wound on the tranquil heart as on a healthy
body; but when he sought to strike that heart again, to drive Job
to words of impatience, he was adding one wound to another.
26. See how cleverly the ancient enemy took care to try to break
the holy man's patience not so much by the loss of all he cared
about as by the sequence and manner in which the reports came. He
was careful to mention the lesser things first, then add the worse
things later, and reported the deaths of his children last. (The
father might have thought the loss of his property trivial if he
heard it when he was already bereaved. The loss of his property
would hit him less hard if he already knew of the death of his
sons, for an estate is nothing if first you take away the heirs for
which it is maintained.) But beginning with the lesser things, he
reported the graver matters last so that Job might know the worse
things little by little and each wound might find a place of grief
in his heart. Note how cleverly such weighty and separate and
sudden evils are reported, so that growing by leaps and bounds,
grief should be unable to restrain itself in the heart of Job.
Grief would the more fan the fires of blasphemy the more he felt
himself inflamed and trapped on all sides by sudden and various
reports of disaster.
27. I do not think we should pass over casually the information
that the sons were feasting in the home of the first-born when they
perished. We said before that feasts can scarcely be held without
some fault accruing. To speak of ourselves rather than Job's sons,
we know that the pleasures of the young are kept in check by the
discipline of their elders; but when the elders themselves give
themselves up to their pleasures, the reins on frivolous
self-indulgence are unloosed for the young as well. Who would keep
himself under the rule of discipline when even those who have the
power to restrain have given themselves up to pleasure. The sons
perished while they were feasting in the house of the eldest
brother because it is just then that the enemy is strongest against
us, when he sees that those who are in charge of our discipline are
given over to enjoyment. He has more room to attack us the more
those who could intercede for us are diverted by self-indulgence.
Far be it from us to suspect that the sons of such a man should
have devoted themselves to their feasting in order to gorge their
bellies; but still we do know that even if someone does not go
beyond the limits of need when he eats, the vigilant mind grows lax
at the table and pays less attention to its battles with temptation
while letting itself go in carefree enjoyment. The enemy
overpowered the sons on the day when it was the first brother's
turn because he looked to find an opportunity to destroy the
younger through the negligence of the elder. But we know how many
arrows of ill-report struck our brave subject; now let us see how
he bore up under the wounds.
XVI.28. Then Job rose up and rent his garments. He shaved his
head, then fell to the ground in adoration. (1.20)
Some people think it a philosophy of great endurance for those who
are snatched up by the harsh discipline not to feel the force of
blows and sorrow at all. But some are too much affected by the
stings of their sufferings and, stirred by immoderate grief, fall
to speaking thoughtlessly. But whoever struggles to hold to true
philosophy must walk a middle path. There is no power of true
virtue in an insensible heart, for the body's limbs are far from
well if they are numbed and cannot even feel pain when cut. He
also abandons the path of virtue by feeling too severely the pain
of wounds, for when the heart is touched by too much suffering it
is stirred to the rash words of impatience and, though it ought to
correct its misdeeds in the face of adversity, instead iniquity
increases in adversity. The prophet speaks against the
insensibility of the beleaguered: "You smote them and they did not
grieve; you wore them down and they refused to accept your
discipline." Against the pusillanimity of the beleaguered the
psalmist speaks: "In their misery they shall not stand." They
would have stood under their miseries if they had born adversity
with equanimity. But after their mind gives way under the lash,
they lose their ability to stand up under the miseries they suffer.
29. Because blessed Job held to the rule of true philosophy, he
held out against both extreme positions with wonderful balance. It
was not that he did not sense the pain (and thus turn his back on
the correcting lash), nor did he feel it too strongly (and thus
rage madly against the judgment of the one who tested him). When
he had lost all his property and all his children, he rose up, tore
his vestments, shaved his head, fell to earth, and worshipped God.
Tearing his vestments, shaving his head, and falling to earth shows
how he felt the pain of his loss. But that it is added, "he
worshipped," shows clearly that in the midst of grief he did not
sin against the judgment of the one who tested him. He was not
entirely unmoved (lest he despise God in his insensibility) nor was
he too much moved (lest he sin by grieving too much). But because
there are two commandments of charity, love of God and love of
neighbor, he poured out his grief for his sons to pay the debt of
his love for his neighbor, but he performed his worship amid his
groans, lest he stray from the love of God. Some love God in times
of prosperity, but love the God that tests them less in times of
adversity. But blessed Job by his actions showed that he
recognized the father's lash, but by his worship he remained humble
and showed that he did not abandon his love for the father even in
grief. He fell under the blows, to show he was not proud and
senseless, but lest he make himself a stranger to the one who sent
the blows, he fell in order to worship. It was the custom of the
ancients that whoever kept up his appearance by growing his hair
long, cut it short in time of trouble; and on the other hand those
who cut their hair short in time of peace, let it grow long in
affliction. Blessed Job in time of peace kept his hair long and
shaved it in time of trouble, so that when the hand from above
despoiled him of all that he had a voluntary change of appearance
would mark him with repentance. But stripped of his wealth,
bereaved of his children, he tore his garments, shaved his head,
and fell to the ground; let us hear what he said:
XVII.30. 'Naked came I from my mother's womb, naked shall I
return there.' (1.21)
How wonderfully in control of his innermost thoughts this man was,
who lay on the ground, his garments torn! By the judgment of God
he had lost all that he had, so he called to mind that time when he
had had nothing of what he had lost; by considering that he had
once not had them, he could temper his grief at losing them. There
is a great consolation at times of loss to bring back to mind those
times when it befell us not to have at all the things we have lost.
Earth brought forth all of us, so we call the earth rightly our
mother. Thus it is written: "A weighty yoke is on the sons of
Adam from the day of coming froth from their mother's womb until
the day of their burial in the mother of all." Blessed Job, in
order to bear patiently what he had lost here, thought carefully
how he had come here. He considers this more carefully and thinks
how he would leave, all to enhance his patience, and he said:
"Naked came I from my mother's womb, naked shall I return there."
This is as if to say, 'The earth brought me out naked here when I
came, the earth shall take me naked when I leave. If I have lost
the things that I had gotten but would have had to leave behind,
what of my own have I lost?' Because consolation does not come
only from considering one's own creation but also from considering
the justice of the creator, it is rightly added:
XVIII.31. 'The Lord gave. The Lord has taken away. As it has
pleased the Lord, so it has been done.' (1.21)
The holy man lost everything in the trial his enemy set, but still
he knew that Satan did not have power to tempt him if not from the
Lord. So he did not say, "The Lord gave, the devil has taken
away," but "The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away." Perhaps
he should have grieved, if what the creator had given the enemy had
taken away; but when the one who gives takes away afterwards, he
takes back his own, he takes away nothing of ours. If we receive
from him what we use in this life, why should we grieve at having
to give back by order of the one from whom we borrowed in the first
place. A creditor is never unjust, if he is not restrained by a
fixed date of repayment and he demands what he has loaned whenever
he wishes. So it is added rightly: "As it has pleased the Lord,
so it has been done." When we suffer in this life things that go
against our will, we must study to turn our will to the one who
cannot will anything unjust. There is a great consolation in
considering that what displeases us is done by the rule of him to
whom only the just is pleasing. If we know that only the just is
pleasing to the Lord, we can suffer nothing if not what is pleasing
to the Lord. All the things we suffer are just and it is
altogether unjust to grumble about just sufferings.
32. But because we have heard how the brave speaker has spoken his
part against his adversary, now let us here how he praised and
blessed his judge at the end of his speech; there follows:
Blessed be the name of the Lord. (1.21)
All his right thoughts he concludes with the blessing of the Lord,
so that the enemy might behold this and blush for his shame in
defeat. The devil had been created for blessedness but turned in
contumacy against God, the God to whom this man in the midst of
tribulation still proclaims a hymn of glory. Note that our enemy
smites us with as many blows as he selects temptations for us. We
stand on the battle line every day, we shudder under the blows of
his temptations every day. But we can send just as many spears
back at him if, besieged with tribulations, we speak humble words.
Blessed is Job therefore, though battered by the loss of his
property, battered by the death of his sons, for he turned his
grief into praise of his creator, saying, "The Lord gave, the Lord
has taken away. As it has pleased the Lord, so it has been done.
Blessed be the name of the Lord." He blasted the haughty enemy
with his humility, he flattened the vicious one with his patience.
We would not believe that our warrior had taken blows and not given
some back. Every word of patience in praise of God the wounded man
uttered was a dart thrown against the breastplate of the enemy.
Job gave back wounds far worse than he received. In affliction he
lost his earthly property, but he saw his heavenly property
multiply as he bore his affliction with humility.
XIX.33. In all this Job did not sin with his lips, nor did he
utter any folly against God. (1.22)
Caught in the toils of temptation, it is possible for us to sin in
the silence of our thoughts even without speaking; so this text
testifies to the words and the thoughts of blessed Job. First it
says, "He did not sin," and then it adds immediately, "nor did he
utter any folly against God." Who has spoken no folly has kept his
tongue from sin; but when it is prefaced, "Job did not sin," it is
clear that he kept from the sin of grumbling even in his thoughts.
He neither sinned therefore nor did he speak foolishly, for he
neither swelled up with pride in the silence of his conscience nor
did he loose his tongue in contumacy. Whoever tries to justify
himself under the last of divine discipline is speaking foolishly
against God. If he dares to assert himself haughtily innocent,
what else does he attack but the justice of the one who tests him?
--------------------
This is enough to say about the words of the literal sense;
now let us turn our remarks to unraveling the mysteries of
allegory.
XX.34. But one day, when the sons of God had come to be present
before the Lord, even Satan was in their midst. (1.6)
We must first discuss how it can be said that something was done
before the Lord on a certain day, when in his presence the course
of time is affected by no alternation of day and night. There is no
mutability or defect in the light that shines on the things it
chooses without their coming to it and that abandons the things it
despises without their leaving its presence. By remaining
immutable in itself, that light arranges all the things that are
mutable, and so establishes in itself the things that pass
away--they cannot pass away in its presence at all, nor does time
pass away in that sight within though it runs away from us without.
So it happens that in eternity the scrolls of the ages remain
firmly fixed that come forth unstable into the world. Why
therefore is it said of something that it happened in God's
presence, "one day," when eternity is a single day to him? This
day is shut in by no end and opened by no beginning, as the
psalmist says, "A single day in your court is better than
thousands."
35. But since sacred scripture speaks to those brought forth into
time, it is appropriate that it uses words temporally, lifting us
up by bending to us. When it says something temporally about
eternity, it leads those accustomed to time bit by bit towards
eternity. Eternity, full of mystery, pours itself effectively into
our minds when it humors us with words and expressions we already
know. There is nothing remarkable about God presenting the mystery
of his immutability without haste in the sacred scripture.
It is just the way he made known to us by little bits and pieces
the incorruptibility of the flesh that he recovered after the
resurrection. From Luke we learn that first he sent angels to
those who sought him in the tomb. Later he appeared himself to the
disciples who spoke of him as they went along their way; but he
appeared in a way they would not recognize at first, and in a way
they would recognize only after much delay and hortatory talk when
he showed himself in the breaking of the bread. Finally, he came
in suddenly and offered himself not merely to be recognized but to
be touched. Because the disciples' hearts were still weak, they
had to be nourished bit by bit for the knowledge of this mystery,
seeking and finding little by little, then growing and as they grew
holding what they had learned the more firmly.
So because it is not suddenly but by gradual acquisition of
arguments and words that we are led to eternity, as though step by
step, it is said that something happened with, in God's presence,
on a certain day, though he regards all times from outside time.
36. Or is scripture trying to tell us, because Satan was present
when this happened one day, that God saw darkness in the midst of
light? We cannot look upon both light and darkness with one and
the same glance, for when the eye is fixed on darkness, light is
banished; and when it turns itself to the flash of light, the
shadow of darkness flees. But that power which immutably observes
all that is mutable--Satan was present to it as if by day, because
it understood the darkness of the apostate angel without any
dimness of vision. As we said, we cannot look upon both what we
approve of and opt for and what we despise and condemn with one and
the same glance, for when the mind turns one way, it is separated
from its other thought, and when it returns to the other, it is
removed from that to which it had clung.
37. But because God looks upon all things at once without
mutability, he comprehends all things without extending himself,
both the good that pleases him and the evil that he condemns, that
which he aids and rewards and that which he judges and condemns;
but he does not vary in his relation to these things that he has
arranged in various order. Satan is said to have been present to
him by day therefore, because the light of eternity is touched by
no cloud of mutability. But darkness is also present (in the one
who was present 'in their midst') because even the impure spirit is
filled with that power of justice by which the hearts of the pure
spirits are filled; he is transfixed by the same ray of light by
which the others are suffused in order to shine themselves.
38. He was present with the sons of God, because even if they
serve God to aid the elect, he serves to prove them. He was
present among the sons of God because even if the sons of God pour
out the aid of pity to those who labor in this world, he serves
secret justice in his ignorance as he tries to exercise the
ministry of reprobation.
So it is well spoken through the prophet in the books of Kings: "I
saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and the host of heaven on his
right and left hand, and it was said: 'How shall I deceive Achab,
that he might rise and fall in Ramoth of Galaath?' One spoke one
way and another spoke another way. And one came forth and said, 'I
shall deceive Achab.' And it was said, 'How shall you deceive
him?' He answered saying, 'I shall go out and I will be a lying
spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.'" How do we take the
throne of God if not as the angelic powers over whose minds he
presides on high while he orders all things below? And what is the
heavenly host if not the multitude of ministering angels? And what
does it mean to say that the heavenly host stands at his right hand
and at his left? For God is within all things and without all
things, hemmed in neither on the right nor on the left. But the
right hand of God is the company of the chosen angels, the left
hand of God is the band of the reprobate angels. It is not only
the good angels who help us that serve God, but even the wicked
angels who test us, not only those who lift up the ones who rise
again from their faults, but even those who weigh down the ones who
do not wish to rise anew.
Nor is it impossible, when it mentions the heavenly host, to
understand that as including the reprobate angels. Though they fly
only in the air, we speak of the birds of heaven. Paul says of the
same spirits, "Against the spirits of wickedness among the heavenly
ones," and mentioning their leader, says, "According to the prince
of the power of this air." The host of angels stands at the right
and left hand of God because the will of the elect spirits serves
divine pity, and the minds of the reprobate, serving their own
malice, obey God's punishing judgment.
So the lying spirit is said to have leaped out into the middle of
the heavenly court, the spirit by whom Achab would soon be deceived
for his punishment. It is impious to believe that a good spirit
would want to serve deceit and say, "I will go out and I will be
the lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets." But King Achab
was worthy, because of his past sins, to be condemned to such
deception; so it happened that one who frequently fell willingly
into sin should for once be snatched against his will for his
punishment, and by a secret justice licence is given to the wicked
spirits to drag unwilling souls for punishment, the ones they had
trapped as willing sinners in the noose of sin. Where in the one
passage it says that the heavenly host stood at the right hand and
the left hand of God here as well it says that Satan was present
among the sons of God. Behold at the right hand of God stand the
angels who are called the sons of God; so at the left hand of God
stand the angels as well, for Satan was present among them.
39. But since it is the allegorical sense that we are pursuing
here, it is appropriate to say that God saw Satan in the day
because he rebuked his ways with the incarnation of his Wisdom, as
if not to have seen him would have been to go on tolerating his
depravity for the perdition of the human race. So it is said to
him by the voice of God:
XXI.40. 'Whence have you come?' (1.7)
Satan is asked by day about his journeys because the plots of the
skulking enemy are brought to light when wisdom is manifest. It is
because the devil is rebuked by the incarnate Lord and punished for
his pestilential unrestraint that it is rightly added, "To whom the
Lord said, 'Whence have you come?'" The Mediator's coming puts a
check on the wickedness of his enticements: that is what it means
to say that God attacks Satan's ways by asking about them. Nor is
it wrong for it to be by day that the sons of God are said to have
been present before the Lord, for all the elect are gathered
together by invitation at their heavenly home when the light of
Wisdom shines upon them. Though incarnate Wisdom came to bring
them together by his own act, they aided his divinity from within
(as he foreknew). But because the ancient enemy was questioned
about his ways when the Redeemer came, let us hear what he
answered:
XXII.41. 'I have gone all around the earth, passing through it to
and fro.' (1.7)
From Adam to the coming of the Lord, he dragged all the nations of
the earth behind him. He has gone around and passed to and fro
because he has put the mark of his wickedness on the hearts of the
nations. Falling from on high, he rightly took hold of the man's
mind because we were willing victims when he bound us by the chains
of our own sin. He has wandered far and free in the world, for
nobody can be found who is free of Satan's crimes. It has been in
his power to go all around the world and find no person to resist
him completely.
But now Satan comes back--that is, the divine power restrains him
from doing his evil deeds, for now there has appeared in the flesh
one who had no share in the contagion of sin from any weakness of
the flesh. There has come a humble one whom even the haughty enemy
respects. The one who had despised the mighty works of God's
divinity is made to tremble in the presence of the weakness of his
humanity. So then in a wondrous way, that very weakness of
humanity is set up for Satan to wonder at, when it says:
XXIII.42. 'Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none
like him on the earth, innocent and upright, who fears God and
draws back from all evil-doing.' (1.8)
We said a little before that 'Job' is translated 'suffering.' He
is truly said to be suffering, for he foreshadows the man the
prophet says would bear our sorrows. There is none like him on the
earth, for every other man is only man, but this man is God and
man. There is none like him on the earth because even if an
adoptive son might advance to share in divinity, in no way couuld
he become God by nature. It is well said that he is a servant,
because he did not disdain to take on the form of a servant. Nor
did assuming the humility of flesh do any harm to his majesty, for
he took on a nature that he would preserve and did not change what
nature he had, not lessening his divinity by his humanity nor
swallowing up the humanity in divinity. So even if it is said
through Paul, "Who, though he was in the form of God, did not
consider it a prize to be coveted that he should be equal to God
but emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant," yet for him
to have emptied himself out is for him to have shown himself
visible (abandoning the magnitude of his invisibility) so that the
form of a servant should cover that which otherwise unchecked would
penetrate all things with divine power. It is God's role to say
figuratively to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job,"
presenting his wonderful and only-begotten son to the devil in the
form of a servant. By suggesting the greatness of his virtue in
the flesh, he shows the haughty adversary what he himself should
grieve over. But because he had spoken of the good which the devil
should admire, it remains that he should add an enumeration of his
virtues in order to check the devil's pride.
XXIV.43. 'Simple and upright, who fears God and draws back from
all evil-doing.' (1.7)
There comes among men "the mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus," offering a model of life in simplicity to man; but
upright, to provide an example of unsparing treatment of wicked
spirits; fearing God, a model for warring down pride; drawing back
from all evil-doing, a model for cleansing impurity of life in the
elect themselves. It is mainly of him that it is said through
Isaiah, "And the spirit of the fear of the Lord will fill him."
And he did indeed uniquely draw back from evil doing, for he did
not imitate the deeds he found among men, as Peter attests: "He
committed no sin nor was there deceit found on his lips."
Satan answered and said to him, 'Has Job feared God for nothing?
Haven't you built walls around him and his house and all around his
possessions? Haven't you blessed the work of his hands? His wealth
has grown and grown.' (1.9-10)
The old enemy recognized that the Redeemer of the human race was
come into the world to destroy him, as it is said through the
possessed man in the gospel, "What can there be between us, son of
God? You have come here out of time to torment us." But when he
saw that the Redeemer could suffer, could bear human mortality, in
his overweening pride he began to doubt all that he had surmised
about his divinity. There was nothing but pride in his thoughts
when he saw the humility of Christ and doubted his divinity. Thus
he had turned the argument of temptation: "If you are the son of
God, speak and these stones shall become bread." Because he saw
Jesus could suffer, he thought that he was not the son of God but
merely one protected by the grace of God. So now he hints
likewise:
XXV.44. 'Haven't you built walls around him, and his house and all
around his possessions? Haven't you blessed the work of his hands?
His wealth has grown and grown.' (1.10)
The devil says that Job and his house are walled in by God because
he has tried and failed to reach his conscience. He says that
Job's property is walled in because he has not been able to attack
his elect ones. He complains that God has blessed the works of his
hands and that his property has grown and grown because as he
withers away he sees that faith is multiplied in the knowledge of
men by the preaching of the apostles. His property is said to have
grown and grown because the number of the faithful is daily
augmented by the works of the preachers. For Satan to have said
these things to God, he had only to have thought them in his envy,
to have grieved over them in his decay.
XXVI.45. 'But reach out your hand and touch his wealth, and see if
he does not curse you to your face.' (1.11)
Satan believed Job was protected by the grace of God in time of
tranquillity, but able to sin in the face of suffering. This is as
if he said openly, 'We will test this person with affliction and
discover that he is a sinner, though some think him divine on
account of his miracles.'
XXVII.46. So the Lord said to Satan, 'So: all that he has is in
your hand--but only do not harm the man himself.' (1.12)
When we discuss the sacred story in the allegorical sense, the
'hand of Satan' does not stand for his power but for temptation
itself. All that Job has is given into the hand of the tempter,
and the hand of temptation is forbidden to touch Job
himself--though that will be permitted once the property is lost.
This is no wonder, for first Judea (which had been his) has been
taken away by infidelity and then later his flesh was nailed to the
gibbet of the cross. First he had to bear Judea's opposition and
then only came to the cross, having first lost what he had owned,
and then later felt the wickedness of the adversary against himself
personally.
XXVIII.47. And Satan went out of the Lord's presence. (1.12)
As we said above, Satan goes out of the Lord's presence because he
comes to accomplish his desires. He was, so to speak, in God's
presence when he could not accomplish (because of God) the things
his wickedness thirsted for.
XXIX.48. Then one day, when the sons and daughters of Job were
feasting and drinking wine at the house of the first-born son . .
. (1.13)
We said that the sons and daughters of blessed Job stood for the
band of apostles and the multitude of all the faithful. The
incarnate Lord first chose a few from Judea for the faith and later
brought the multitude of the pagans to himself. The eldest son of
the Lord should be taken as the Jewish people who had been born of
his teaching in the Law from long before; the younger sons are the
pagans who were gathered from the ends of the earth. While Satan
unwittingly served the best interests of men and sought a chance to
make the Lord suffer in the cold hearts of the persecutors, the
apostles still did not know that the pagans were to be won for God
and revealed the secrets of the faith to Judea alone. When Satan
is said to have gone out from the Lord, the sons and daughters are
said to have feasted in the home of the first born son; for it was
said to them, "Do not go astray by the path of the pagans." After
the death and resurrection of the Lord, they turned to preaching to
the pagans; thus it says in Acts, "It was necessary to speak the
word of God first of all to you; but because you spurn it and judge
yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the
pagans." These are the sons of the bridegroom of whom it is said
in the voice of the Bridegroom himself, "The sons of the bridegroom
will not go hungry, as long as the bridegroom is with them." These
are the ones who feast in the house of the first-born son, for to
this point the apostles enjoy the delights of sacred scripture only
for the purpose of gathering the Jewish people.
XXX.49. A messenger came to Job who said, "Your cattle were
plowing and your she-asses were grazing nearby; and the Sabaeans
swept down and drove them all away and put the shepherd boys all to
the sword. I alone got away to tell you.' (1.14-15)
The cattle represent those who do good work; the she-asses stand
for those who live simple lives. They pasture near the cattle
because even though simple minds cannot understand abstruse ideas,
they are closer to their brethren simply because they believe in
the good their brethren do out of charity. They do not know how to
envy others' intellect, for we see that they do not separate
themselves apart in the pasture. The she-asses refresh themselves
along with the cattle because the slower brethren are joined to the
more clever and are nourished by the learning of the latter.
"Sabaeans" is translated "captors." What do they stand for if not
the impure spirits who lead all the people they subject to
themselves into infidelity as captives? They smite the shepherd
boys with the sword because they wound them terribly with the
spears of their temptation--the ones that manly staunchness has not
yet rendered completely free and robust. They begin good works
well, but in their tender years they are soon overthrown by the
impure spirits. The enemy puts them to the sword in that he
transfixes them with despair of eternity.
50. What does it mean when the messenger comes and says, "I alone
got away to tell you?" Who is this messenger who escapes when the
others perish but the prophet who, while all the evil things he
foretold come to pass, is the only one who returns safe to the
Lord? He is known to have spoken the truth about what would befall
those who died, and that is what it means to say that he alone has
lived in the midst of the dead. This is why a boy is sent to
Rebecca about to marry Isaac, for when the church is betrothed to
the Lord, a prophet comes between to serve them. When the Sabaeans
sweep down, it is only a boy who escapes to tell of it, for the
words of prophets grow strong when the evil spirits lead the minds
of the weak into captivity. A prophet foretells that captivity:
"My people is taken captive because it did not have knowledge." It
is as though prophecy is saved when it comes to pass that the
captivity which it foretells is revealed.
XXXI.51. And while he was still speaking, there came another who
said, 'The fire of God fell from heaven and laid waste sheep and
shepherds. I alone have escaped to tell you.' (1.16)
"Heaven" is the right name for those who were entrusted with the
office of preaching in the synagogue, for they were believed to
have wisdom of things above. When Moses was rousing the priests
and people to hear the words of his admonition, he said, "Give an
ear to heaven and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words
that come from my mouth," representing by "heaven" the order of
rulers, by "earth" the flock subordinated to them. So in this
place we can not inappropriately take "heaven" to be the priests,
or the Pharisees, or the doctors of the Law. They performed the
duties of heaven before the eyes of men and seemed to glow with
light from above. But they were deeply moved to oppose our
Redeemer, so it is said that fire fell from heaven because the
flame of envy flashed forth from those who were thought to teach
the truth and the ignorant populace was deceived by this. By the
evangelist's witness we know that those who were jealous of the
teachings of the Truth looked for a chance to betray the Lord but
in fear of the crowd did not dare to let what they were doing
become known. Hence it is written in the gospel that they said to
the people (in order to sway them): "Has anyone of the leaders
believed in him, or any of the Pharisees? But this crowd which has
not known the law, they are cursed."
What shall we see in the sheep and the shepherds if not those who
are innocent but still weak? They fear to bear the hostility of
Pharisees or leaders, and so they are consumed by the fire of
infidelity. Let it be said therefore: "The fire of God fell from
heaven and laid waste sheep and shepherds," that is, 'The flame of
envy burst forth from the hearts of their leaders and burned up
whatever good there was stirring in the masses.' Seeking their own
honor in the face of the Truth, these evil leaders turn the hearts
of their followers away from all righteousness. So it is added
fittingly: "I alone have escaped to tell you," for when the cause
of malice is accomplished, the words of the prophet who said, "And
now fire consumes the adversaries" escape the doom of error. It is
as if he said openly, 'Fire consumes the wicked not only long
afterwards by punishment but even now through jealousy; for those
who are to be punished later with the torments of retribution now
besiege themselves with the torture of jealousy.' The shepherd
escaping alone comes back and reports that the sheep and shepherds
have perished from the fire: this is what happens when the prophet
abandons the Jewish people but proclaims that he has spoken the
truth, saying, "Zeal lays hold of the uninstructed people." This
is as if to say, when the people fails to grasp the words of the
prophets but gives its faith to the words of the jealous, then the
people perishes in the fire of zeal because it has burned itself up
with the flame of envy.
XXXII.52. And even while this one was speaking, there came another
who said, 'The Chaldaeans formed up three robber bands, attacked
the camels, and drove them away, and put those herdsmen to the
sword: and I alone have escaped to tell you.' (1.17)
We know "Chaldaeans" means "ferocious people," so the the
Chaldaeans here stand for the authors of persecution who burst out
with open cries of wickedness and said, "Crucify! Crucify!" They
made three bands of themselves to put questions to the Lord:
Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees. They were defeated by the
words of Wisdom, but because we must believe that they dragged some
foolish people after them, we understand that they made up robber
bands and carried off camels. Each of those groups corrupted the
hearts of the weak with their wicked ideas; and by persuading them
to go to death, they took the twisted minds of the weak into
captivity. When the Lord was preaching in Samaria, many of the
Samaritans were called to our Redeemer himself; but not those who
despaired of the resurrection and tested the Lord with the question
of the seven husbands of one woman trying to lead believing
Samaritans (whom we know were ignorant of the hope of the
resurrection) away from the faith. Since they accepted some things
of the Law, but rejected others, they are like camels, a pure
animal in that it chews its cud, but impure in that it has the
uncloven hoof.
But, chewing their cud, the camels with uncloven hoof also stand
for those in Judea who heard the sacred history in the literal
sense, but were unable to discern its spiritual power. The
Chaldaeans in their three bands drive them away when the Pharisees,
the Herodians and the Sadducees turn them by their wicked arguments
away from all right sense. At the same time they put the shepherds
to the sword, because even if there were some in the people who
could use their powers of reason, the leaders opposed them not by
means of reason but by the authority of their office, putting
themselves up as examples to be imitated by their subjects, by the
authority of their regime leading them to ruin even if some of the
followers could have understood something. The one youth who fled
from them and reported the disaster stands for prophetic discourse
remaining strong even when Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees
worked their wickedness, as when the prophet said, "And the ones
who possess the Law did not know me."
XXXIII.53. This one was still speaking, when (lo!) another came in
and said, 'While your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking
wine at the house of your first-born son, suddenly a violent wind
blew up from the desert and smashed into the four corners of the
house, which collapsed and crushed your children, and they were
killed.' (1.18-19)
A little before we said that the sons and daughters were the
apostles who preached and the peoples who listened: they are said
to feast in the house of the first-born because they were fed on
the delights of holy preaching while still living among the Jews.
"Suddenly a violent wind blew up from the desert": The desert is
the heart of the unfaithful, abandoned by all when the Creator
deserts it. The violent wind must be taken as strong temptation.
A violent wind blew up from the desert when strong temptation came
from the hearts of the Jews at the passion of our Redeemer to tempt
his faithful ones. The desert can well be taken as the abandoned
multitude of impure spirits. Whence a wind blows up and smashes
into the house, because temptation comes from these spirits and
stirs the hearts of the persecutors.
54. But this house in which the children were feasting had four
corners. We know that there were three ranks of rulers in the
synagogue: the priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people.
If we add the Pharisees to them, we find the four corners of this
house. A wind blew up from the desert and smashed into the four
corners of the house when impure spirits of temptation swept down
on the minds of these four orders and drove them to the evil of
persecution. The house collapsed and crushed the children because
when Judea fell into the cruelty of persecuting the Lord, it
overwhelmed the faith of the apostles with fear and despair. They
saw only that their Master was held prisoner and they fled in
different directions, denying him. And although inner strength
kept their spirit presciently on the path of life, base fear
temporarily uprooted the life of faith. The ones who abandoned
their creator when Judea raged against him are like the ones killed
when the corners of the house gave way and the house collapsed.
And what are we to suppose happened to the flock of the faithful
then, when we see that even the rams, their leaders, had fled? But
in the midst of this there was one who escaped to tell the tale,
because prophetic discourse remained strong to announce this,
saying of the persecuting people: "My beloved has committed many
crimes in my house." Saying of the good preachers who fled in time
of passion: "My nearest and dearest stood a long way off," and
saying of all those who feared greatly, "I shall smite the shepherd
and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered."
XXXIV.55. Then Job rose up and rent his garments. (1.20)
When the house fell and the children were killed, Job rose up: for
when Judea was lost to infidelity, and its preachers fell away in
fear of death, the Redeemer of the human race showed the sort of
judgment he left his persecutors to face; for him to rise is for
him to show to what punishment he abandoned sinners; he rose when
he extended the judgment of justice against the reprobate. So it
is right that he is said to have torn his garments. What was the
garment of the Lord if not the Synagogue that clung, at the
prophets' foretelling, to the hope of his incarnation? Just as now
he is clothed in those who love him, as Paul says, "That he might
display a glorious church having no sport nor wrinkle." The church
is said to have neither spot nor wrinkle: it is a garment of the
mind, pure in action and smooth in hope. When Judea believed in
his coming incarnation, it was to no less an extent his garment for
the way it clung to him.
56. But because he came when he was expected, then in his coming
he taught new doctrines, and in his teaching he worked miracles,
and in his working of miracles he endured evil. He rent the garment
he had worn when he took some of those in Judea away from
infidelity and abandoned others to their infidelity. The torn
garment is Judea split by contrary opinions. If the garment had
not been torn, the evangelist would not have said that a contention
arose in the people when the Lord preached: "As some said, he is
good; but others: No, but he seduces the crowds." This torn
garment of his, divided in opinion, lost therefore the unity of
concord.
XXXV.57. He shaved his head, then fell to the ground in adoration.
(1.20)
What are the hairs he shaves away if not the sacraments in all
their subtlety? What does the head represent if not the height of
priesthood? So it was said to Ezechiel the prophet: "You, son of
man, take your sharpened sword, shaving your hair, and take your
sword and lead it through your hair and beard." The deed of the
prophet expressed the judgment of the Redeemer who appeared in the
flesh (i.e., shaving his head), because he took the sacraments of
his commandments away from the priesthood of the Jews; he shaved
the beard because he abandoned the Israelite kingdom and cut off
the outer appearance of its strength. What does "earth" stand for
here if not man who is a sinner? To the first man who sinned it
was said, "Earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt return." By
the name "earth" the sinful pagans are represented. When Judea
believed itself just, it is clear what it thought of reprobate
pagans, as Paul says, "We are Jews by nature and not sinners of the
pagans." Our Mediator fell to the earth with shaven head when he
let go of the Jews, took his sacraments away from their priesthood,
and came to the attention of the nations. He shaved the hair from
his head because he took the sacraments of the Law away from their
first priesthood; and he fell to earth because he gave himself to
the sinners he would save; and when he abandoned those who thought
they were just, he took up those who knew and confessed they were
sinners. Hence he says himself in the gospel, "I have come for
judgment to this world, so that those who do not see shall see and
so that those who do see should become blind." Thus the column of
cloud that went before the people in the desert shone with the
splendor of fire not by day but by night, because our Redeemer, by
the example of his life, offered leadership to those who followed,
but shone before the confident of their own righteousness with no
light at all; yet for those who recognized the shadows of their
sins, he poured out the fire of his love. Nor should it be thought
inappropriate to refer this passage to our Redeemer because Job is
said to have fallen to the ground; for it is written, "The Lord
sent the word to Jacob and it fell upon Israel." Jacob means
"usurper," but Israel means "seeing God." Jacob stands for the
Jew, Israel for the pagan people. The one whose place Jacob
thought to take through the death of the flesh is the one in whom
gentility first saw God through the eyes of faith. The word was
sent to Jacob, but came to Israel because the Jew rejected the word
he saw coming, but the pagan people confessed it suddenly and found
it. Of the holy spirit it is said, "The spirit of the Lord fell
upon them."
58. It is said in scripture of the word or the spirit of God that
it "fell" when it means that its coming was unexpected. What
rushes or falls is what comes to the lowest spot suddenly. For the
mediator to have fallen to earth is for him to have come to the
nations unexpectedly with no prophetic signs beforehand. It is
well put when it says that he fell to earth in adoration because
when he took on the humility of the flesh, he poured prayers of
humility into the hearts of those believing in him. His doing was
in his teaching that it should be done, just as it is said of his
spirit: "The spirit himself intervenes for us with unutterable
groans." The one who is equal does not make petition but is said
to ask because he makes askers of those whom he fills; our Redeemer
showed this in himself as well by praying to the Father as his
passion drew near. What wonder is it if while in the "form of a
servant" he subjected himself to the father in prayer, when in that
form he tolerated the power of sinners even to the extremity of
death?
XXXVI.59. 'Naked came I from my mother's womb, naked shall I
return there.' (1.21)
The synagogue stands as the Redeemer's mother according to the
flesh: from the Jewish nation he came to us visibly in the flesh.
But the synagogue kept its Redeemer covered up with the veil of a
scripture taken literally by failing to open the eyes of the mind
to the spiritual meaning of his coming. When it
refused to see God covered by the flesh of a human body, it was
refusing to contemplate him laid bare in his divinity. But he came
forth naked from the womb of his mother because he emerged from the
flesh of the synagogue and came openly to the pagans.
Joseph's flight, leaving his cloak behind, is a good symbol for
this: when the adulterous woman wanted to use him ill, he fled
outside and left his cloak behind, because the synagogue, believing
the Lord to be merely a man, was, so to speak, trying to hold him
in an adulterous embrace, but he left the veil of the letter on
their eyes and offered himself visibly to the nations who could
behold the power of his divinity. So Paul says, "Until today, when
Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts," because the adulterous
woman kept the cloak for herself and lost the one who escaped naked
from her evil clutches.
Because he came from the synagogue and appeared visibly to the
faith of the pagans, he is said to have come forth naked from his
mother's womb. But did he abandon her altogether? And where is
the fulfillment of what the prophet said, "If the number of the
sons of Israel is like the sands of the sea, shall the remnants be
saved"? Or of what is written, "Until the fulness of the nations
shall enter and then so shall all Israel be saved"? There will be
a time, therefore, when he will be visible even to the synagogue.
There will doubtless be a time at the end of the world when he
shall make himself known to the remnants of his nation just as he
is, as God. So it is well said here, "naked shall I return there."
He returns naked to the womb of his mother when at the end of the
world the one who, made man in this world, was despised is declared
in the eyes of the synagogue to have been God before all ages.
XXXVII.60. 'The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away; as it has
pleased the Lord, so it has been done. Blessed be the name of the
Lord. (1.21)
Insofar as our Redeemer is God, together with God he gives all
things. Insofar as he is man, he receives from God as one among
others. He could say therefore of Judea, since it believed in the
coming mystery of his incarnation, "The Lord has given." But he
could say of Judea when it spurned the longed-for presence of his
incarnation, "The Lord has taken away." It was "given" to Judea
when it believed in the future through the prophets; but as the
just deserts of its blindness, it was "taken away" from Judea when
it refused to venerate that which had been believed through the
prophets.
61. Christ would teach those who believe in him that they should
know to bless the Lord in the midst of trials when he adds, "as it
has pleased the Lord, so it has been done. Blessed be the name of
the Lord." So also he is said in the Gospel, when the passion was
drawing near, to have taken bread and given thanks. And so he gave
thanks when he was about to bear the whips of others' iniquity.
The one who offered no pretext for being smitten humbly blessed the
Lord under a hail of blows: to show how each one should act when
punished for his own sins if he could bear calmly the punishment
due to others' wickedness; to show what each one subjected to
punishment should do if he, placed under the whip, gave thanks to
the Father as an equal.
XXXVIII.62. In all this Job did not sin with his lips, nor did he
utter any folly against God. (1.22)
As we have already indicated, Peter gives explicit conformation of
what is said here, that he neither sinned nor uttered any folly:
"Who committed no sin nor was there found deceit on his lips."
Among men, deceit on the lips is thought clever, but how foolish it
is before God, as Paul says: "The wisdom of this world is
foolishness before God." Because there was no deceit on his lips,
surely he uttered no folly. The priests and leaders thought he had
spoken foolishly against God when they interrogated him in the time
of his passion and he confessed himself the son of God. So they
complained and said, "What do we need of witnesses? Behold, we
have heard his blasphemies ourselves." But he uttered no folly
against God because he spoke the truth: he proved this on the
brink of death even to the infidels, what he would show later to
all the redeemed by his resurrection.
63. We have run over briefly these ideas about the meaning of this
text for the head of our body. Now we will repeat our treatment,
morally, for the edification of the body, so that what is reported
to have been done outwardly in deed may be a model for how we
should act inwardly in thought. When the sons of God are present
before the Lord, Satan is with them, because the old adversary
regularly intrudes cleverly into our best thoughts (the ones that
are planted in our heart by the agency of the holy spirit), and so
troubles and torments our good ideas. But the God who creates us
never abandons us in temptation, for he renders our enemy, who
conceals himself in ambush against us, visible by shining his light
for us. So he quickly says,
XXXIX.64. 'Whence have you come?' (1.7)
To make inquiry of the clever enemy is to reveal his plots to us so
that when we see him sneaking up on our heart we can be wary
against him with alertness and strength.
XL.65. He answered saying, 'I have gone all around the earth,
passing through it to and fro.' (1.7)
Satan circles the earth when he looks into the hearts of the flesh
and seeks out an opportunity to accuse us. He went around the
earth because he went around human hearts, looking to take away the
good and insert evil into our minds, to heap up the inserted evil
and bring it to completion, to win perfect allies
in iniquity to share his punishment. Note that he did not fly over
the earth but passed through it to and fro, for he does not desert
the one he tempts any too swiftly. When he finds a malleable
heart, he places his foot (by his pitiful persuasion), lingering to
leave behind the footprints of depraved deeds and render whom he
can reprobate by resemblance to his iniquity. But against him, Job
is mentioned and praised:
XLI.66. 'Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none
like him on the earth, innocent and upright, who fears God and
draws back from all evil-doing.' (1.8)
When divine inspiration praises someone for the devil to hear, it
really strengthens him against the devil. God's praise consists of
first giving that which is good and then protecting what he has
given. But the ancient enemy rages the worse against good people
the more he sees them surrounded by the fortifications of divine
aid. So he adds:
XLII.67. 'Has Job feared God for nothing? Haven't you built walls
around him, and his house, and all around his possessions? Haven't
you blessed the work of his hands? His wealth has grown and
grown.' (1.9-10)
This is as if the devil said, 'Why do you praise the man you
protect and strengthen? Despise me, but this man would be worthy
of your praise if he turned against me and stood by his own
strength.' So he soon demands in his malice what the protector of
Job would grant out of kindness, for it is added:
XLIII.68. But reach out your hand and touch his wealth, and see if
he does not curse you to your face. (1.11)
It often happens, when we bring forth abundant fruits of our
virtues and thrive on constant prosperity, little by little the
mind rears up and begins to think that the good things it has come
from itself. So the old adversary naturally tries to put his
malicious hands on those things, but it is only in kindness that
God permits this trial, so that the mind, under temptation's blows,
smitten for the very good things in which it was recently exulting,
should recognize the weakness of its helplessness and so be
strengthened all the more in hope for divine aid. So it happens
wonderfully by the arrangement of divine pity that what the wicked
enemy uses to tempt the heart to destroy it becomes the thing from
which the merciful creator brings forth instruction and life. So
it is fittingly added,
XLIV.69. 'So: all that he has is in your hand--but only do not
harm the man himself. (1.12)
This is as if to say, 'I will hand over the worldly goods of every
one of the elect to you, so that you might know that I preserve the
one clinging to me with all his mind.'
XLV.70. And Satan went out of the Lord's presence. (1.12)
Because the devil is not permitted at all to prevail to the point
where the heart fails, he is shut out from what is within and must
wander abroad. Even if he troubles the mind in its virtues
greatly, he is still outside, for God resists and does not allow
him to wound the hearts of the just unto ruin. He allows him to
rage against them just insofar as it is needed to strengthen them
with the experience of temptation, lest they should attribute their
good deeds to their own strength, lest they should lose themselves
in the torpor of ease and dissipate the strength preserved in the
face of fear. It is done so that they might guard their advance
the more carefully, the more they see that the enemy stands
opposite them on the battlefield of temptation at all times.
XLVI.71. Then one day, when the sons and daughters of Job were
feasting and drinking wine at the house of the first-born son, a
messenger came to Job who said, 'Your cattle were plowing and the
she-asses were grazing nearby; and the Sabaeans swept down and
drove them away and put all the shepherd boys to the sword.'
(1.13-15)
Wisdom is born in the hearts of the elect before the other virtues,
and this is the firstborn offspring of the gifts of the spirit.
This wisdom is our faith, as the prophet witnesses when he says,
"Unless you believe, you shall not understand." We are wise and
truly on the path of understanding if we give our faith and trust
to everything our creator says. There is feasting therefore at the
house of the first-born son when the other virtues are nourished by
faith. If faith is not first nurtured in our heart, nothing else
can be good (not even that which seems good). There is feasting
then at the house of the firstborn son when our virtues are filled
with the food that is holy scripture, in the dwelling-place of
faith. It is written, "Without faith it is impossible to please
God." Our virtues feed on the authentic banquets of life when they
begin to be nourished by the sacraments of faith. There is
feasting therefore at the home of the firstborn son, for unless the
other virtues are filled with the food of wisdom and act prudently
in all that they seek, they cannot be virtues at all.
72. But see how, while our good works are nourished by wisdom and
faith, our enemy drives away the cattle as they plow and the
she-asses as they graze and puts the shepherd boys to the sword.
How shall we interpret the cattle that plow except as our weightier
thoughts? When they edify the heart with diligence and discipline,
they bring forth abundant fruits. What then are the she-asses that
graze except the simple emotions of the heart? When we restrain
them carefully from the error of duplicity, we are feeding them in
the pasture of freedom and purity. But often
the cunning enemy sees the weighty thoughts of the heart and
corrupts them with the suggested delights of pleasure; when he sees
the simple emotions of the heart, he shows it subtle and clever
novelties, so it might seek praise for subtlety and lose the purity
of simplicity. If he cannot lead the heart astray even to perform
wickedness, still his temptation does hidden damage to the thoughts
of good people. When he is seen to have troubled the goodness of
the mind, he might seem to have taken it away completely.
The cattle that plow can also be taken as the thoughts of charity.
We try to use those thoughts to our neighbors' advantage, plowing
up the hard surface of the heart with our preaching. The
she-asses, who never resist with madness and rage those who would
burden them, can represent gentleness and patience. Often the old
enemy, when he sees us seeking to be of use to others with our
words, plunges the mind into idleness and torpor, so that we will
be less likely to look after others even when we are neglecting
ourselves. He carries off the cattle that plow when he breaks down
the mind's thoughts that are bent on serving our brethren by
burdening us with idle negligence. Even though the hearts of the
elect watch over their secret thoughts with care and overbalance to
the good whatever harm they sustain from the tempter, the spiteful
enemy rejoices the more in a victory when he prevails over the
thoughts of good people even for a moment.
73. But often when he sees a mind braced for endurance, he finds
out what it loves the most and there he plants his snares to trip
us up. (The more something is loved, the more readily it can be
used to weaken our patience. Indeed the hearts of the elect are
quick to recover themselves and to reproach themselves severely
even for slight movements off the path. By being moved they learn
how they should have stayed firm and sometimes stand then the more
staunchly for having been battered around. But the old enemy, when
he has stirred up our patient thoughts even for a moment, rejoices
to have driven off the she-asses from the fields of the heart.
In the things we arrange to do we consider with care what goes with
what, all under the watchful eye of reason. But often the enemy
comes upon us with a sudden rush of temptation, unexpectedly
outrunning the precautions of the heart: so he puts all the
shepherd boys to the sword as they guard the flock. One of them
still manages to escape and report that the rest have perished, for
whatever the mind suffers at the hands of the enemy, the
discernment exercised by reason always returns and, mulling over
fearlessly what has been suffered, reminds us that it alone has
escaped. So when the others perish, one returns home when in the
midst of turbulence and temptation the conscience recovers its
discernment: the distracted mind recognizes what it has lost to
sudden assaults, and, pained by sharp compunction, makes good its
losses.
XLVII.74. And while he was still speaking, there came another who
said, 'The fire of God fell from heaven and laid waste sheep and
shepherds. I alone have escaped to tell you.' (1.16)
What is meant by sheep but the innocence of thought, but the purity
of good hearts? We said a little earlier that "heaven" can stand
for the realm of air (so we speak of the "birds of heaven"). We
know that the unclean spirits who have fallen from the ethereal
heaven wander in the air, halfway between heaven and earth. They
envy men whose hearts rise towards the heavens, the moreso because
they have seen themselves cast forth from heaven for the defilement
that comes from pride. Because, therefore, the flame of jealousy
sent by the powers of the air rushes down against the purity of our
thoughts, we say fire from heaven came down upon the sheep: for
often they inflame the pure thoughts of our minds with the fire of
lust. Just as they devour the sheep with fire, so they unsettle
the chaste habits of the soul with the temptations of wanton
indulgence. It is said to be God's fire because it comes about not
by an act of God, but at least with his permission. And because
the evil spirits sometimes overwhelm the mind's inner watchfulness
in a sudden attack, so it is said that they slay the shepherd
guards with the sword. But one of them still escapes safely, for
our discernment stubbornly and carefully watches over all that the
mind suffers. It alone escapes the danger of death. Even when the
thoughts are troubled, discernment does not succumb, but reminds
the soul of its losses and thus summons its master to lamentation.
XLVIII.75. And even while this one was speaking, there came
another who said, 'The Chaldaeans formed up three robber bands,
attacked the camels, and drove them away, and put those herdsmen to
the sword: and I alone have escaped to tell you.' (1.17)
The camels are pure in part, for they chew their cud, and impure in
part, for they have uncloven hooves: we have already said that
they stand for the good ordering of temporal affairs, in which we
are more distracted by cares and thus more variously subjected to
the enemy's temptations. Everyone who is responsible for looking
after temporal matters is vulnerable to the weapons of the unseen
enemy. Some things he may try to do cautiously and, while he
cleverly foresees future dangers, carelessly fails to see at all
the harm being done in the present. But then often when he keeps
watch on present concerns, he is caught sleeping by onrushing
events he should have foreseen; often he does a few things
carelessly, neglecting others that should be carried out alertly;
and often excess of zeal in actions gives rise to recklessness and
does more harm than good to the things he touches.
Sometimes he tries to place restraints on his tongue but under
press of business is prevented from silence. Sometimes he
criticizes himself too severely and keeps silent when he should
speak. Sometimes he lets himself go in saying what is necessary
and ends by saying things that should not have been said. Often he
is caught in such complications of thought that he can
scarcely keep track of all that he considers within; and doing
nothing, he is exhausted bearing this great burden in his heart.
Because the things he endures within are grievous, he remains quiet
and idle on the outside, but is exhausted nevertheless.
Then often the mind catches sight of the future and turns its whole
attention in that direction. A great uproar seizes it, sleep
flees, night turns into day. While the bed holds the limbs
outwardly at rest, within the debate goes on at full volume in the
forum of the heart. And then it often happens that none of the
things foreseen come to pass and all that anxious thought,
carefully worked out with concentrated attention over a long time,
suddenly ceases, leaving empty silence behind. The mind thus
neglects what is necessary all the more when it is taken up more
fully by empty cares.
Because therefore the unclean spirits beset our busy cares
alternately with action and inaction, because they baffle them now
with inarticulate speech and now with confusing loquacity, and
because they are almost always weighing down those cares with great
burdens of useless thought, we say that the Chaldaeans in three
bands carry off the camels. To make up three bands against the
camels is nothing less than to thwart all our attempts to look
after temporal affairs with misdirected action, with needless
speech, and with disordered thought. While the mind struggles to
exercise itself effectively in looking after what is without, it is
cut off from care for itself and is all the more unaware of the
injuries it suffers because it is busy with other business too
diligently pursued.
When the mind takes on worldly cares, it is only right for it to
pay attention to what it owes itself, to what it owes its
neighbors. It neither neglects its own cares through too much
attention to other peoples' business, nor does it fail entirely to
care for others through self-centered preoccupation. Even so, it
very often happens that when the mind is looking after both
concerns with care, while it takes great precautions for itself and
for those with whose care it has been entrusted, still it is shaken
by some sudden emergency and is so carried away headlong that all
its precautions go for naught in the crisis. So it says that the
Chaldaeans smote the herdsmen watching the camels with the sword.
But one of them still returns, because in the midst of all this the
discernment that springs from reason comes to mind and the troubled
spirit recognizes what it loses by the sudden attack of temptation
within.
XLIX.76. This one was still speaking, when (lo!) another came in
and said, 'While your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking
wine at the house of your first-born son, suddenly a violent wind
blew up from the desert and smashed into the four corners of the
house, which collapsed and crushed your children, and they were
killed. I alone have escaped to tell you.' (1.18-19)
As we said above, the desert is the cast-off band of impure
spirits, which desert the blessedness of their creator and thus
lose, so to speak, the farmer's cultivating hand. A violent wind
came from the desert and overwhelmed the house: because strong
temptation was brought by those impure spirits and it uprooted the
conscience from its former tranquility. This house rested on four
corners because prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice support
the solid edifice of our mind. This house stands on its four
cornerposts because every good work builds on these four virtues.
So also the four rivers of paradise water the land because the
heart is filled with these four virtues and thus cooled from the
heat of carnal desires.
But sometimes when laziness comes upon the mind, prudence grows
cold; for when it wearies and flags, it fails to foresee the
future. Sometimes when a certain pleasure comes upon the mind, our
temperance wastes away: to the extent that we are led to delight
in the things we have, the less we restrain ourselves from what is
illicit. Sometimes when fear works its way into our heart, it
confounds the strength of our fortitude; our ability to face
adversity is reduced by our fear of losing something we love too
well. Sometimes self-love plants itself in the mind and turns it
silently aside from the rectitude of justice; by failing to hand
itself over to its creator totally, the mind is speaking against
legitimate justice.
And so it says that a violent wind smashed into the four corners of
the house, when strong temptation shakes the four cardinal virtues
by its hidden workings; the house, so to speak, collapses from the
four corners when the conscience is troubled and the virtues are
battered.
77. The sons make feasting inside the four corners of the house,
because the other virtues (the heart's children) offer food for one
another in the private places of the mind (which is supported to
the height of rectitude principally by these four virtues). The
gift of the spirit firsts forms the mind with prudence, temperance,
fortitude, and justice, then teaches the mind to resist particular
temptations with the seven virtues of its gift: it imparts wisdom
to counter foolishness; understanding to counter obtuseness;
counsel to counter rash action; strength against fear; knowledge
against ignorance; pity against hardness of heart; and fear against
pride.
78. But sometimes, when the mind is secure in the fulness and
richness of these gifts and when it has known continuous freedom
from care with these gifts, it forgets whence they came to it and
begins to think that it owns them as if by right (since they have
never been absent). So it happens that sometimes this grace takes
itself away for our benefit and shows the presumptuous mind just
how weak it is when left on its own. We truly know where our good
gifts come from when we realize that we have not the strength to
keep them if it seems we are losing them. In the course of this
instruction in humility it often happens that at the hour of
onrushing temptation, so much foolishness assaults our wisdom that
the mind in its confusion does not know how to face the threatening
evils or how to prepare itself to oppose temptation. But the heart
is prudently instructed by this very foolishness, for it partakes
of wisdom all the more truly and humbly afterwards if it has given
way to foolishness for a moment; and wisdom is then possessed the
more surely for having been almost lost for a moment.
Sometimes the mind is elated with itself in understanding of lofty
things and grows so obtuse in ordinary matters that it suddenly
finds itself unable to understand even the simplest things, when it
had been nimbly reaching the heights a moment before. But this
failure to understand gives birth to the very understanding it
seems to take away, for it humbles the heart for a moment and
strengthens it all the more for the task of comprehending lofty
things.
Sometimes we take pleasure in doing all things in accord with
prudent counsel, but then we are snatched up by rash precipitation
in a pressing moment of emergency. We thought we had been living
at all times in an orderly way and are laid low by the sudden
turmoil within. But we learn from that lesson of turmoil that we
should not attribute our prudent counsels to our own strength; and
then we return to gravity and maturity all the more for having lost
it too for a moment.
Sometimes the mind strongly despises adversity, but again at once
powerful fear staggers us at a time of sudden adversity. But
shaken in this way, the mind learns to whom to attribute the
strength by which it stood in earlier trials. It clings to its
strength afterwards the more tenaciously for having seen it slip
away in the face of sudden terror.
Sometimes we rejoice that we know great things, then suddenly find
ourselves plunged into helpless ignorance and blindness. But when
the eye of the mind is clouded for a moment by ignorance, it is
then opened truly to knowledge, and knows now whence it takes its
knowledge, tested in the hard school of its own blindness.
Sometimes we manage our affairs scrupulously and congratulate
ourselves for having a truly pitying heart: then hardiness of
heart comes upon us suddenly. But when we are thus hardened, we
learn where our pity had come from and recover it in truth, loving
it the more for having been lost.
Sometimes the mind rejoices at having subjected itself to fear of
the Lord, then stiffens as pride offers its temptations. But soon
again it fears very much for not having feared and turns itself
hastily back towards humility, and receives the gift back again the
more securely for having understood its worth in losing it.
79. When the house is demolished, the sons die: for the virtues
that are born in the heart are overwhelmed in a moment when our
conscience (which leads to proper knowledge of self) is put in
disarray by temptation. These sons go on living within, through
the spirit, even while they perish without, in the flesh, for
though our virtues, upset in time of temptation, fall away from
their original state of integrity, nevertheless they have planted
roots in the mind and continue at least to exist as we persevere in
our intention.
The three sisters perish along with the sons because sometimes
under temptation's whip charity is shaken from the heart, hope is
battered by fear, and faith is shaken by doubts. often we grow
feeble in our love of the creator when we think we are being
wearied by the lash beyond our limits. Often the mind fears more
than it need to and weakens the confidence of its hope. Often the
mind is strained by great questions and faith is shaken and weakens
as if to fail. But the daughters go on living even while they
perish within the ruined house, for even if our confusion reveals
that faith and hope and charity have almost vanished in the
conscience, the persistence of right intention keeps them alive in
the eyes of God. So the servant boy who reports these things
escapes alone because the mind in its discernment remains intact in
the midst of temptation. The messenger brings it about that Job
should get back his sons by weeping, just as our discernment brings
us to our senses and brings the mind to recover in repentance the
strength it had begun to lose.
It is thus providential that our mind should be smitten sometimes
with the pangs of guilt, for man would believe himself to be a
strong and mighty creature if he did not ever sense some failing of
that strength in the private places of the mind. But when the mind
is shaken by temptation and wearied beyond its capacity in
the face of temptation's assault, the power of humility against the
snares of the enemy is revealed and, just as the mind fears total
collapse, it receives again the power to stand firm. The one who
has been tempted learns not only whence its strength comes but how
much vigilance is required to maintain that strength.
Often if temptation does not gain the upper hand, carelessness and
confidence will lay us low the worse. We give ourselves over to
rest when we are weary then, and we offer an unguarded mind to the
one who would corrupt it; so if the tempter brings, by the
permission of divine compassion, a temptation that is not sudden,
violent, onrushing, but that taps gently and quietly, the mind must
all the more watch out against his snares and gird itself up for
the contest against the enemy. So it is well added:
L.80. Then Job rose up. (1.20)
Sitting is for the passive, rising for the one who will fight. To
rise on hearing bad news is to make the mind strong and ready for
combat in the face of temptation. The mind in its discernment
grows stronger in the face of such temptation by learning how to
distinguish more precisely between the virtues and the vices. So
it follows:
LI.81. And rent his garments. (1.20)
We rend our garments when we reconsider our deeds, separating good
from bad. If our deeds did not protect us in the sight of God as
clothing would, it would never have been said in the voice of the
angel: "Blessed is the man who keeps watch and protects his
garments, lest he should come forth naked and they should see his
shame." Our shame is seen when our life is reprehensible in the
eyes of the just at judgment and covered by no veil of good works.
But because we are stirred to lamentations when pressed by our
guilt, and then roused by those lamentations we open the eyes of
the mind the better to perceive the light of justice, we are said
to rend our garments, because we punish our own deeds all the more
severely, raising an angry hand against ourselves, when discernment
reasserts itself in our tears. Then all our proud elation
collapses, then all our superfluous and silly thoughts fall away
from the mind. So it says then:
LII.82. He shaved his head, then fell to the ground in adoration.
(1.20)
What now shall we make of the hairs of the head (considered in
light of the moral sense) if not that they are the mind's thoughts
that fall away and disappear? So elsewhere it is said to the
church, "Your lips, my bride, are like a scarlet ribbon, and your
words are sweet." The lips of the bride are like a ribbon then,
because when the church exhorts the faithful, all the thoughts
dispersed in the minds of those who hear are bound together again,
lest they should be let go and
scatter, lest they spread in ways they should not, lest thus
scattered they should take away sight from the eyes of the heart.
Instead they are gathered and bound together into a single thought,
when the ribbon of holy preaching ties them together. How right to
call the ribbon scarlet! The preaching of the saints burns with
the ardor of charity alone.
What then does the head stand for if not the mind, which is the
principal agent in every action we take? So elsewhere it is said,
"And let there be no oil lacking for your head." Anointing oil is
for the head what charity is for the mind: and the head lacks this
oil when charity departs from the mind. To shave the head
therefore is to cut away superfluous thoughts from the mind. To
fall to the ground with shaven head is to repress presumptuous
thoughts and recognize humbly how weak we are in and of ourselves.
83. It is difficult to do great things and not have some secret
thoughts of self-confidence stemming from those great deeds. The
more staunchly we live our lives in the face of vice, the more
presumptuous thoughts are begotten in the heart. While the mind is
valiantly fending off culpability without, very often it is
secretly swelling with pride within. We think that we must be of
some great value and that we have not sinned even in the thoughts
of self-esteem. In the eyes of the strict judge, however, our sin
is worse the more our guilt is incurred secretly (and thus lies
further beyond correction). The trap lies open and yawning at our
feet just insofar as we let our life glory in itself secretly.
This is why we have often said that it is providential how the
self-confident soul is shaken by an appropriate temptation, so that
in its weakness it might discover its own true nature and surrender
its arrogant presumption: for as soon as temptation strikes the
mind, every presumptuous thought and feeling falls silent.
84. The mind becomes a veritable tyrant when it swells with pride.
It has sycophants for its tyranny in the thoughts that only
encourage its excesses. But when the enemy swoops down against the
tyrant, the claque of sycophants soon fades away. As the adversary
approaches, these courtiers flee and in their fright abandon the
man they had been lauding with clever flattery when they were
comfortably established in peacetime. When the flatterers are
gone, the tyrant remains alone to face the enemy, for when proud
thoughts fade away, the troubled mind is left confronting nothing
but temptation and its own weakness. The head is to be shaved when
bad news is heard, because when temptations attack, the mind is
stripped of its presumptuous thoughts.
Why, after all, do the Nazarites grow their hair? Is it not because
through their life of great continence they allow presumptuous
thoughts to grow? But why must the Nazarite shave his head at the
completion of his devotion, and place his hair in the fire of
sacrifice, if not because we only reach the height of perfection
when we have so far defeated the outward vices that we can even cut
away superfluous thoughts from the mind? To burn the hair in the
fire of sacrifice is to incinerate those thoughts in the flame of
divine love, so that the whole heart might burn with love of God
and consume its vain thoughts with fire, as the Nazarite does with
his hair at the end of his devotions.
And we should note that Job fell on the earth in adoration. We
show true adoration to God when we recognize humbly that we are
dust, when we attribute nothing to our own strength, and when we
recognize that all our good works come from the mercy of the
creator. Thus it is then said fittingly:
LIII.85. 'Naked came I from my mother's womb, naked shall I return
there. (1.21)
As if the mind, confronted by temptation and recognizing the
poverty of its weakness, should say: 'Grace first brought me naked
into the world in faith, and grace shall take me up and save me,
still naked, in the end.' It is a great consolation for the
troubled soul, when it sees itself beset by vices and denuded of
its virtues, to fly to the one hope of mercy. It can keep from
shameful nakedness by thinking itself humbly denuded of virtues.
Even if stripped of some virtue by temptation, it is better clad in
humility itself when it recognizes its own infirmity. It lies
prostrate with more strength than it had once stood, now that it no
longer claims what it has for itself as though in no need of divine
aid. So Job now humbly recognizes the hand of the judge and
benefactor:
LIV.86. 'The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away.' (1.21)
Schooled by temptation, he has truly grown when he can recognize
the hand of the giver in the virtue he had and the power of the
taker in the disruption of his strength. His strength is not in
fact taken away but is weakened by this interference, so that the
mind might fear its loss altogether and, thus made humble, never
have to lose it in fact.
LV.87. 'As it has pleased the Lord, so it has been done. Blessed
be the name of the Lord.' (1.21)
When we are shaken by inner turmoil, it is fitting that we should
rely on the judgment of our creator, so that in that way our heart
might offer greater praise to its helper the more it weighs
accurately, in the midst of its troubles, its real weakness and
feebleness.
LVI.88. In all this Job did not sin with his lips, nor did he
utter any folly against God. (1.22)
The mind that sorrows must be especially careful not to murmur
against its trials, not to burst forth openly with unseemly words
when it senses itself pricked by temptation within, lest the fire
that burns even gold should turn the mind to ash like straw, as
punishment for improper speech.
89. There is no reason why what we have said about the virtues
should not also be said of those gifts of the holy spirit that
declare virtue to the world. To some is given prophecy, to some
speaking in tongues, while to others the power to heal. But
because these gifts are not always present in the mind in the same
way, it is clear that they are sometimes taken away for our
benefit, lest the mind should swell with presumption.
If the spirit of prophecy were always present to the prophets,
Elisha the prophet would not have said: "Let her go, for her soul
is bitter and the Lord has hidden his word from me." If the spirit
of prophecy were always present to the prophets, the prophet Amos
would not have answered and said, "I am not a prophet," where he
also added, "nor am I the son of a prophet; but I am a shepherd and
a picker of sycamore trees." How is it that he was not a prophet
when he foretold the future in truth so many times? Or how is it
that he was a prophet if he denied the truth about himself at the
time? But because at the hour in which he was sought he felt
himself lacking the spirit of prophecy, he bore true witness
concerning himself saying, "I am not a prophet." But he went on to
say: "And now hear the word of the Lord . . . . This is what the
Lord says: 'Your wife shall go whoring in the city, and your sons
and daughters shall fall by the sword, and your property shall be
registered by the surveyor, and you will die in an unclean land.'"
From these words of the prophet it is clear that what he has spoken
of himself is fulfilled in truth; and now he has so quickly
deserved to receive the spirit of prophecy because he so humbly
acknowledged that he was no prophet. If the gift of prophecy were
always present to the prophets, the prophet Nathan would never have
granted to king David (who was asking whether he might construct a
temple) the answer that would be denied again in a little while.
90. So it is well written in the gospel: "The one upon whom you
see the spirit coming down and remaining upon him, this is the one
who baptizes." The spirit comes to all the faithful, but it
remains uniquely with the Mediator alone, for it never abandons the
humanity of the one from whose divinity it has come forth. It
abides in him who is alone capable always of all things. The
faithful, who receive the spirit (since they cannot always have, as
they desire, the gifts of these signs of virtue) give evidence of
their acceptance of the spirit by transient manifestations. But
when it is said of the same spirit by the voice of truth to the
disciples, "It will abide with you and will be within you," it
seems to contradict what is said by the divine voice of the spirit
abiding with the Mediator (when it says, "The one upon whom you see
the spirit coming down and remaining upon him"). If the master's
voice says that the spirit abides in the disciples, how can it be
a unique sign that it abides with the Mediator? We can solve this
puzzle quickly if we consider the gifts of the spirit.
91. There are some gifts of the spirit without which we never come
to life at all, and others by which the holiness of our life is
publicly revealed for the benefit of others. Gentleness, for
example, and humility and patience, faith and hope and charity,
these are the spirit's gifts, but they are the kind without which
human beings can never truly attain to life itself. But prophecy,
and the power to cure, and the gift of tongues, and the ability to
interpret what has been said in tongues, these are also gifts of
the spirit but are the kind that display the presence of his power
to inspire those who behold them. Through those gifts without
which life is impossible, the holy spirit remains forever, in all
the elect, or at least in those who preach the word. But through
those gifts that are given not to save our life but to reach out to
others, the spirit does not remain forever even in his preachers,
for he constantly rules their hearts to live well but does not
always show the signs of his power through them. Sometimes,
indeed, he withdraws the signs of his power from them, so that they
may be cherished all the more humbly for being impossible to
possess fully.
92. But the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, has the
spirit always and continually present to him in all things, because
the same spirit is brought forth from Christ in his substantial
nature. So it is right to say that though he abides in his holy
preachers, he remains uniquely in the mediator. He remains in his
preachers through grace for some specific purpose, but in Christ he
remains substantially for all things. Just as our body enjoys only
the sense of touch, but the head of the body has the use of all
five senses at once, so it sees and hears and tastes and smells and
touches, in just such a way the members of the heavenly body shine
with certain virtues, but the head is afire with all the virtues.
The spirit abides naturally in Christ in a different way, never
drawing back. The gifts of the spirit by which one reaches for
life cannot be lost without danger; but the gifts by which holiness
of life is made manifest are very often, as we say, taken away
without any loss. The first are to be clung to for our benefit,
the others are to be sought for others' benefit. The first leave
us fearful that we may lose them; but humility consoles itself when
the rest are taken away for a time, because it knows they could
have lifted the mind to the sin of pride. When therefore the signs
of the spirit's power are taken away from us, we should rightly
say, "The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away; as it has
pleased the Lord, so it has been done. Blessed be the name of the
Lord." We only really show that we have possessed them rightly
when we bear their temporary loss calmly from the outset.