Moralia in Job 1018

8. To understand many things in the sacred writings is perilous, unless the things understood are guarded. What do we believe is called 'many riches' by signification, save an abundance of the keen edges of counsels? which the hand of the seeker finds, when the thought of the one treating gives them birth. For these riches of wisdom Solomon, contemplating them, says: 'The crown of the wise is their riches' (Prov. 14:24). Who, because he names as riches not earthly metals but prudence, straightway by contrariety adds: 'The folly of the foolish is imprudence' (ibid. 24). For if he called earthly riches the crown of the wise, without doubt he would confess the folly of the foolish to be poverty rather than imprudence.

But when he added that the folly of the foolish is imprudence, he indicated that the riches of the wise, in that he called it prudence, mean prudence. These riches of knowledge Paul, contemplating in himself, and humbling his contemplation by consideration of human frailty, says: 'We have this treasure in earthen vessels' (2 Cor. 4:7). And so we find many riches with us, when by investigating we perceive the gifts of abundant intelligence, the sacred oracles, and in these we perceive many things, yet not things diverse from one another. But there is no secure joy in the divine pages either to know strong or many things, but to guard the things known. For he who understands well recognizes what he ought to do by understanding.

For the more broadly one is extended by understanding, the more earnestly he is bound to the fulfilling of works. Whence in the Gospel the Truth says: 'To whom much is given, much shall be required of him; and to whom they have entrusted much, they will demand more of him' (Luke 12:48). 9. Understanding given is like money received on loan, to be repaid with interest. Let us therefore reckon the understanding given as money lent; because the more is credited to us out of bounty, the more we are held debtors in work; and very often that same money of understanding received, when it is given out at interest to hearers, is lost, unless it be dispensed with caution.

For it is not to be looked upon negligently, in the book of Kings, that when the sons of the prophets were cutting wood in the Jordan, the axe of one of them slipped from its handle into the deep and vanished (2 Kings 6). For the iron in the handle is the gift of understanding in the heart. But to cut wood by this is to rebuke those who act wickedly. Which sometimes, while it is done loosely, while the lapse of vainglory is not shunned in that same received knowledge, the iron is lost in the water, because from dissolute work the understanding is made foolish. Which understanding we know indeed to be given to this end, that it ought to be restored before the eyes of the giver from good action. Whence rightly he who had lost the iron cried out: 'Alas, alas! alas, my lord, and this very thing I had received on loan' (2 Kings 6:5).

For the elect have this as their own, that if ever the stealthy fault of vainglory creeps upon them in their knowledge, they swiftly return to the heart, and whatever they find in themselves damnable before the eyes of the strict Judge, they pursue with tears. Who, weeping, not only cautiously inspect the evils they have committed, but also the good things which they ought to have repaid from the gift received; because indeed they feel themselves so much the more sinners, the more from the neglected good things which they were able to do they are held debtors. Rightly therefore he who lost the iron cried out: 'Alas! alas! alas! and this very thing I had received on loan.' As if he said: That I lost through the dissolution of negligence, which I received from the grace of the lender that I might repay it through good works.

But never does God forsake a mind which truly acknowledges itself in its sins. Whence also presently Elisha, coming, casts the wood downward, and lifts the iron to the surface; because indeed our Redeemer, piously regarding us, humbles the heart of the sinner, and reforms to him the understanding which he had lost—He sinks the wood and raises the iron, because He afflicts the heart and repairs knowledge. Whence it is well said in another translation, that 'he broke the wood and cast it, and thus lifted the iron.' For to break the wood is to bruise the heart from elation. To cast the wood to the depths is to humble the elated heart in the knowledge, as we have said, of its own weakness.

And straightway the iron returns to the surface, because the understanding recurs to the use of its former exercise. 10. Hence concerning the gift entrusted to them, the just fear more than they rejoice. Therefore, since the gift of understanding which is received is scarcely guarded amid so many difficulties (for care must be taken lest it grow torpid in idleness, care lest in the exercise of work it vanish through the vice of elation), holy men by no means exult when they know what they should do, but when they do what they had known; and if in understanding they rejoice together at the bounty of the giver, yet grieving they consider the debt of work, so that they may by action pay off what has been advanced to them in knowledge.

For foolish is the debtor who rejoicing receives borrowed money, and heeds not the time at which he ought to repay. But the joy of receiving is moderated, when with shrewd foresight the appointed time of repaying is also thought upon. Since therefore just men are not exalted with secure joy in those things which they watchfully understand, let it rightly be said: 'If I have rejoiced over my many riches, and because my hand has found very much.' As if it were plainly said: By no means did I believe myself rich out of justice in that I even understood many right things which I ought to do; nor did understanding exalt the heart, because the consideration of the owed work pressed it down.

But it is to be known that it very often happens that when the height of understanding is perceived, the mind, exceedingly solicitous concerning itself, is kept from the fall of elation. But when it begins even to work the wondrous things which it understands, by that very fact it sometimes slips whereby it is displayed outwardly, and glories in its acts to outrun the rest. Blessed Job therefore, just as he did not extol the gold of understanding, so neither did he lift up before human eyes the light of wondrous working. Whence also aptly he adds: