Moralia in Job 1015

4. One must trust not in slipping riches, but in God alone. We call it 'obryzum' (pure gold) from raw gold. The holy man therefore believed neither gold to be his strength, nor pure gold—that is, the mass of unrefined gold—to be his confidence; for fixing his hope and delight in the grace of the Creator alone, he sinned neither over the quantity of gold nor over its form. For to have placed hope in the creature would have been to despair of the Creator. But in uncertain things had that rich man fixed his hope who said: 'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; rest, eat, drink, be merry.' But the supernal voice rebukes him, saying: 'Fool, this night they require your soul of you; and the things you have prepared, whose shall they be?' (Luke 12:19-20).

For that very night he was taken away who had counted on many seasons in his abundance of goods, so that he who by gathering supplies for himself provided for the long term, might scarcely see even the one following day. For to lay a foundation in slipping things is, as it were, to wish to make firm the confidence of hope upon flowing waters. While God stands forever, all things pass away. What then is it to flee from what stands, save to cling to passing things? For who, snatched into the swelling whirlpools of running rivers, could himself remain fixed, while the wave flowed downward beneath? Whoever therefore shuns being swept away, it remains that he flee what is swept away, lest through that which he loves he be forced to arrive at that which he shuns.

For he who clings to slipping things is drawn thither, whither tends that which he holds. First therefore care must be taken that one love not temporal things, and then that one place not confidence in those same temporal things which he retains not for delight but for use; for the mind, joined to running things, soon loses its own stability. For the surge of the present life drags him whom it lifts, and greatly mad is he who is rolled in the wave and tries to fix his foot. But there are very many who, though they place no confidence in passing things, yet, when these are abundantly present to them for necessary uses, rejoice with a silent mind. In which matter there is no doubt that each one grieves so much the less that eternal things are lacking, the more he rejoices that temporal things are present;

and he who grieves less that temporal things are lacking, more surely expects that eternal things may be present. Blessed Job therefore, testifying that he had no such joy from earthly things, adds, saying: