Moralia in Job 1021

By this attestation, then, what is indicated to us, except that great fear and circumspection are needed, lest our mind ever rejoice, even silently, over its own praises? For whoever beholds the greatness of his fame as it were the brightness of the moon, and makes for himself joy in the secret of the mind, to whom has this one preferred himself, except to the Author, by whose gift he received the power to work well, and yet in His gift he grows glad over the grace of his own praise? For despising the honour of the Creator, he is convicted of loving himself more, in whose eulogies he rejoices. Although sometimes even holy men rejoice over their good reputation;

but when through it they weigh that their hearers profit toward better things, they no longer rejoice over their own reputation, but over the usefulness of their neighbours, because it is one thing to seek favours, and another to exult over profits made. In which matter it is necessary that, when it does not profit the usefulness of the hearers, praiseworthy fame should not elevate our mind, but weary it. For when we are praised by the attestation of the human tongue, we are questioned by a hidden pulsation as to what we feel about ourselves. For a proud mind exults even when false good things are said about it, because it considers not how it lives before God, but how it becomes known among men.

For despising the judgment of Almighty God concerning itself, and seeking only that of men, it is exalted amid the praises it hears, and, as it had sought this alone, it rejoices as it were over the prize of the work. But on the contrary, if the heart is truly humble, the good things it hears about itself either it does not recognize at all, and fears because they are falsely spoken; or certainly, if it truly knows them to be present in itself, by that very fact it dreads lest they be lost from the eternal retribution of God, in that it considers these things divulged among men, and it fears vehemently lest the hope of the future reward be exchanged for the wage of transitory favour. 19. The saints are tormented by their own praises.

From which matter it comes to pass that the mind of the elect is tormented by the great fire of its own praises, and from all the rust of its own torpor is boiled clean by the mourning of thought. For with cautious consideration it trembles, lest either concerning those things in which it is praised and which are not present it find the greater judgment of God, or concerning those in which it is praised and which are present it lose the fitting reward. Whence it very often comes to pass that, just as the unjust man is polluted by his own praise, so the just man is purged by hearing his own praise. For while he recognizes that the good things he has done are proclaimed by men, he fears the subtle scrutiny of the last judgment against himself, as has been said, and trembling he recurs to his conscience, and corrects whatever reprehensible thing is therein.

For while he fears lest his good deeds have become known, dreading the subtlety of the scrutiny to follow, if there are any hidden evils in himself he cuts them off. For he fears lest he be shown to God as not even such a one as he is thought to be by men, and he is not content that in that in which he was able to become known, in this he should remain. For he now esteems that from his good deeds a retribution has as it were been made to him, unless he adds to them also other things which are unknown to men. Whence it is well said through Solomon: As silver is tested in the crucible, and gold in the furnace, so is a man tested by the mouth of him who praises (Prov. XXVII, 21). For silver or gold, if it is base, is consumed by the fire; but if it is genuine, it is declared by the fire. So indeed is it also with the sense of one who works.

For what sort he is, is shown in that in which he is praised. For if he exalts himself at hearing his own praises, what else was this one but base gold or silver, whom, namely, the furnace of the tongue consumed? But if, hearing his own favours, he returns to the consideration of the supernal judgment, and fears lest concerning these he be weighed down before the hidden Arbiter, he grows, as it were by the fire of purgation, to the greatness of brightness, and from where he endures the burning of trepidation, thence he shines the more brightly. Blessed Job, therefore, because he by no means preferred himself on account of his operation, confidently says: If I have beheld the sun when it shone. And because praiseworthy fame did not divert this man from the gaze of the interior judgment, he added: And the moon moving on brightly.

And because he did not permit his mind to be overcome by the grace of his own reputation, not even by silent thought, he immediately added: And if my heart has rejoiced in secret. And because very often the inconsiderate mind, while it does not resist transitory favour, is dragged even to this point, that it itself praises what it does, to the condition which was premised there is as it were fittingly subjoined: