Moralia in Job 1017

6. They restrain their senses, and by continual diligence gather themselves within their own mind. It is not uncertain that both these luminaries, appointed for human services, are called the host of heaven. To worship them we know that many have fallen, as Scripture witnesses, as it is written: 'They worshiped all the host of heaven' (2 Kings 17:16). And because the sun and moon are regarded in one way for use, in another for veneration, blessed Job declares that he by no means beheld the sun and moon in that manner in which they are wont to be venerated by their worshipers, nor did his heart rejoice, nor did he kiss his hand with his mouth. In which kissing what else is expressed than the grace of veneration? For if he had ever done this, he calls it the greatest iniquity and a denial of God.

But after he had recounted such heights of virtues concerning himself in the passages above, what wonder does he now relate, if he makes manifest that he did not worship the sun and moon? Whence it is to be weighed that, after he testifies that he had no confidence in gold, nor rejoiced in many riches, he is led still to loftier things, that he may instruct us the more, the more subtly he narrates certain things of himself. For he says: 'If I beheld the sun when it shone, and the moon walking in brightness, and my heart rejoiced in secret.' What is here said to be seen, save to gaze with longing? Whence the Psalmist says: 'If I have beheld iniquity in my heart, let not God hear' (Ps. 65:18). Which iniquity, indeed, could not be expressed in the mouth, were it not beheld in the heart.

But it is one thing to see by judgment, another by appetite. Blessed Job therefore declares that he by no means beheld the shining sun and the moon walking in brightness, so as to show that he did not desire the beauty of the present light. As if, after the contempt of his earthly abundance, he plainly intimated: What shall I say, that I by no means rejoiced in gold, I who was not delighted even in the bodily light itself? For holy men, after they despise all the delights of the present life, for the sweetness of that inner light turn away from this outer light of souls as from darkness; and much do they strive within themselves, lest they be seized by delight of this light which shines without.

For if the visible light is incautiously loved, the heart is blinded by the invisible light; because the more the mind is poured out gaping toward outward things, the more it is beaten back in its inner gaze. Whence all shrewd men, lest they slip away too much to outward things through the bodily senses, by continual diligence gather themselves within their own mind by the hidden discipline of custody, that they may be found the more whole within, the less they are poured out without. For with this vigor of discipline had he restrained himself within the secret places of his mind, who, fleeing the appetite of the outer life, said: 'The day of man I have not desired, You know' (Jer. 17:16). That therefore which is said by the prophet:

'The day of man I have not desired, You know'—this, in other words, blessed Job asserts of himself, in that he did not behold the shining sun and the moon walking in brightness, and did not rejoice from these in the secret places of his heart; because indeed he could not rejoice over those things which he did not see through the desire of delight. 7. They take heed lest they lean upon their own prudence. But if we search out through the mysteries of allegory also all these things which we have run through in treating according to the history, what do we take gold to be in this place, save the talent of illustrious understanding; what pure gold, save the mind? which, while it is smelted by the fire of love, ever keeps in itself the brightness of beauty by the daily renewal of fervor.

For the mind knows not to grow old through torpor, which is zealous ever to begin anew through desire. For hence it is said by Paul: 'Be renewed in the spirit of your mind' (Eph. 4:23). Hence the Psalmist, who had already arrived at the height of perfection, as though beginning, said: 'I said, Now I have begun' (Ps. 76:11); for indeed, if we would not grow weary of the good things begun, it is greatly necessary that we believe ourselves to begin daily. Nor is it foreign to the order of reason that we say understanding is signified by gold; because just as in an ornament gold is placed underneath, that the row of gems may be arranged above it, so the bright understandings of the saints are humbly laid beneath the divine gifts, and receive the distinct gifts of graces above themselves.

And unless gold had something similar with wisdom, a certain wise man would by no means have said: 'Wisdom hidden, and treasure unseen, what use is there in either?' (Ecclus. 20:32; 41:17). But holy men count not their strength to be gold, because however much they shine with talent, they esteem themselves to be nothing of their own powers. And though they can perceive all things vigorously, they first desire to understand themselves, so that the light of talent, after the manner of the sun, may first illumine the place in which it rises, and afterward the rest, to which by proceeding it is spread; lest, if by straining to know other things they know not themselves, there the sun's ray be darkened where it rises.

They therefore direct the strength of talent toward knowing their own weakness, and from the better knowledge of their weakness they grow strong. Gold, then, is not believed to be strength, if confidence is not placed in the talent received. Which Solomon, admonishing well, says: 'Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not upon your own prudence' (Prov. 3:5). Let him say, then: 'If I have thought gold my strength, and to pure gold have said, my confidence.' As if he plainly confessed, saying: Neither did I attribute to my own talent what I truly understood, nor to my own mind, if it befell me to have done any good things, did I principally impute these. Who, still more subtly intimating to us the humility of his heart, adds, saying: