Moralia in Job 1045

VERSES 18-20. — I am full of words, and the spirit of my belly constrains me. Behold, my belly is like new wine without a vent, which bursts new wineskins. I will speak and breathe a little; I will open my lips and answer. 18. The proud imitate the loftiness of others' speech, not the intention of usefulness. — Sometimes arrogant men, while they behold the holy preachers uttering great things and being revered for their speech, imitate the loftiness of their speech and not the usefulness of their intention; nor do they love that which the preachers seek, but they seek above all this, that they may be shown to men as illustrious. For it often happens that wise men, when they consider that they are not heeded, impose silence upon their mouth;

but often, while they perceive that the crimes of the wicked increase because they themselves are silent and do not rebuke, they endure a certain force of their spirit, so that they burst forth into the speech of open reproof. Hence the prophet Jeremiah, when he had enjoined silence of preaching upon himself, saying: I will not remember him, nor speak any more in his name; at once added: And it became in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I fainted, not able to bear it; for I heard the reproaches of many (Jeremiah 20:9). For because he perceived that he was not being heeded at all, he desired silence; but when he saw the evils increasing, he did not remain in that same silence.

For because he was silent outwardly, out of the weariness of speaking he endured a fire within from the zeal of charity. For the hearts of the just are inflamed when they behold the deeds of the wicked increasing uncorrected, and they believe themselves partakers of the faults of those whom they permit to increase in iniquity by keeping silent. The prophet David, after he had enjoined silence upon himself, saying: I set a guard upon my mouth, while the sinner stood against me; I was dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence from good things (Psalm 39:1-2), in that very silence of his was set on fire with this zeal of charity, who at once subjoined: And my sorrow was renewed, my heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall burn (Psalm 39:3).

The heart therefore grew hot within, because the ardour of love refused to flow out externally through the admonition of speech. A fire burned in the meditation of the heart, because the rebuke of offenders cooled off from the reproof of the mouth. For the zeal of charity, with wondrous consolation, tempers itself by increasing, when it flows out against the works of the wicked through the voice of reproof, so that even what it cannot correct it does not cease to rebuke, lest by the consent of silence it should condemn itself a partaker of offenders. 19. Some vices feign themselves virtues.

— But because often certain vices feign themselves to be virtues, just as prodigality sometimes wishes to seem mercy, and stinginess sometimes frugality, and cruelty sometimes justice, so for the most part the anxiety of vainglory, in no way containing itself within silence, inflames the mind to the impulse of speaking as though it were the zeal of charity, and the force of craved display drives it to the unbridling of speech, and as though under the pursuit of counselling, the lust of appearing bursts forth. For it cares not, in speaking, what may profit, but what may appear; nor does it strive to correct the evil which it perceives, but to display the good which it feels. Hence Elihu too, stretched out by the spirit of elation, and not containing himself within the enclosures of silence, says:

I am full of words, and the spirit of my belly constrains me. Behold, my belly is like new wine without a vent, which bursts new wineskins. 20. The puffing up of elation sometimes imitates the zeal that comes from the breathing of the Holy Spirit. — But if we ought to understand this spiritually, in this place he calls the bosom of the heart the belly. And in the new wine is received the fervour of the Holy Spirit, of which the Lord says in the Gospel: They put new wine into new wineskins (Matthew 9:17). By which, when the apostles were suddenly filled (Acts 2:4), when they spoke in all tongues, it was said by the Jews, who did not know, but nevertheless attested the truth: They are full of new wine (Acts 2:13).

And by the weak wineskins we not inappropriately understand consciences that are weak by their very humanity, or certainly these earthly vessels of our bodies, concerning which the apostle Paul says: We have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7). But Elihu, because, as we said above, he is thus stretched out by the inflation of elation, as though he were kindled to speaking by the ardour of the Holy Spirit through the grace of charity, compared the spirit of his understanding, in that he was silent, to new wine without a vent. And well he says: Which bursts new wineskins; because the fervour of the Holy Spirit is scarcely contained not only by the old, but even by the new life. New wine therefore bursts new wineskins, because the power of its fervour transcends even spiritual hearts.

I will speak and breathe a little; I will open my lips and answer. Well he says: I will breathe; because just as it is the labour of the just to see perverse things and not correct them, so it is a grievous labour to the arrogant if they do not display what they know. For they can scarcely bear the force seething within, if all that they feel they make known a little too slowly. Hence it is necessary that when a good thing is done, first its elation be conquered in the heart, lest, if it proceed from the root of a wretched intention, it produce the bitter fruits of wickedness. 21. Those who still lie subject to vices should not presume to rule others. — Those therefore who still lie subject to the war of vices ought by no means, through the exercise of preaching, to be set over the teaching office of others.

For hence it is that, according to the voice of the divine dispensation, from the twentieth and fifth year the Levites serve the tabernacle, but from the fiftieth they become keepers of the vessels. For what is signified by the twenty-fifth year, in which the strength of our youth arises, if not the very war against each single vice? And what by the fiftieth, in which the rest of the jubilee is also contained, if not the inward rest of a mind expressed when the war has been tamed?

And what is figured by the vessels of the tabernacle, if not the souls of the faithful? The Levites therefore serve the tabernacle from the twenty-fifth year, and from the fiftieth become keepers of the vessels, so that evidently those who still endure the struggles of assailing vices through the consent of pleasure may not presume to undertake the care of others; but when they have subdued the wars of temptations, whereby they are now secure in themselves through inmost tranquillity, they may be allotted the guardianship of souls. But who perfectly subdues to himself these battles of temptations, since Paul says: I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin (Romans 7:23)? But it is one thing to endure wars bravely, another to be overcome by wars in weakness.

In the former, virtue is exercised, lest it should be exalted; in the latter it is utterly extinguished, lest it should subsist. He therefore who knows how to bear bravely the temptation of the conflict, even when he is shaken by temptation, presides in the high citadel of quiet, because even within himself he beholds under himself the contentions of vices, to which, broken by no pleasure, he consents not at all. There follows: