Moralia in Job 1046

VERSES 21, 22. — I will not accept the person of a man, and I will not equal God to man. For I know not how long I shall subsist, and whether after a little while my Maker will take me away. 22. The time of the present life is brief, because it does not endure. — It is a right consideration, that he does not equal God to man for this reason: because he is ignorant how long he shall subsist here, or when he shall be taken away to God's judgment. And well he says: After a little while my Maker will take me away; because however long the time of the present life may be, by that very fact it is brief, in that it is not enduring. For it is not fitting that anything be judged long-lasting which is bounded by an end. But amid these opinions which he offers, solid in their truth, he again bursts out into words of elation, saying:

— Hear therefore, Job, my words, and hearken to all my sayings. Behold, I have opened my mouth, let my tongue speak in my jaws. 23. The proud do not preach sound doctrine soundly, because they grow insolent. — Let us weigh from what elation it descends, that he admonishes blessed Job to hear him, that he professes to have opened his mouth, that he promises his tongue will speak in his jaws. For this the doctrine of the arrogant has as its own property: that they do not know how to bring forth humbly what they teach, and cannot rightly minister the right things which they understand. For in their words it is betrayed that when they teach, they seem to themselves as it were to reside upon a certain summit of loftiness,

and they look down upon those whom they teach as though placed far beneath themselves, as it were in the depths, whom they deign to address not by counselling, but scarcely by domineering. But rightly does the Lord say to these through the prophet: But you ruled over them with austerity, and with power (Ezekiel 34:4). For they rule with austerity and power who hasten to correct their subjects not by reasoning calmly, but by bending them harshly through domineering. 24. True doctrine flees elation. — But on the contrary, true doctrine flees this vice of elation the more vehemently by thought, the more ardently it pursues the very master of elation with the darts of its words.

For it takes care not to preach with more elated conduct him whom it assails in the heart of its hearers with sacred discourses. For humility, which is the mistress and mother of all virtues, it strives both to declare by speaking, and to display by living, so that it may express it among the disciples of truth more by conduct than by words. Hence Paul, speaking to the Thessalonians, as though forgetful of the loftiness of his own apostolate, says: We were made little ones in your midst (1 Thessalonians 2:7). Hence the apostle Peter, when he said: Always ready to give satisfaction to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15), asserted, in the very science of doctrine, that a manner of teaching must be preserved, adding:

But with modesty and fear, having a good conscience (1 Peter 3:16). But that which Paul says to his disciple: Command these things, and teach with all authority (1 Timothy 4:11; Titus 2:15), does not counsel domination of power, but authority of life. For that is taught with authority which is done before it is spoken. For it withdraws confidence from doctrine when the conscience impedes the tongue. He did not therefore instil into him the power of elated speech, but the confidence of good action. Hence too it is written of the Lord: For he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 7:29). For singularly and principally he alone spoke out of good power, because out of weakness he committed no evil.

For from the power of his divinity he had that which he ministered to us through the innocence of his humanity. 25. What preachers must consider in order to flee elation. — For we, because we are weak men, when we speak of God to men, ought first to remember what we are, so that from our own weakness we may weigh with what order of teaching we may counsel our weak brothers. Let us therefore consider that we are either such as those whom we correct; or that we were once such, even if by divine grace working we are no longer, so that we may correct with a humble heart all the more temperately, the more truly we recognize ourselves in those whom we amend.

But if we are neither such, nor were such, as those still are whom we take care to amend, lest perchance our heart grow proud and, from that very innocence, fall the worse, let us recall before our eyes the other good things of those whose evils we correct. And if these are altogether none, let us have recourse to the hidden judgments of God, because just as we received this very good which we have by no merits, so also the grace of supernal power can pour itself into them, so that, roused afterwards, they may even be able to outstrip those very good things which we received before. For who would have believed that Saul, who at Stephen's death kept the garments of those who stoned him, was destined by the merit of apostleship to go before Stephen who had been stoned (Acts 7:57)?

By these thoughts therefore the heart ought first to be humbled, and then at last the iniquity of offenders be rebuked. But this manner of speech, as has often been said, Elihu is shown to be ignorant of, who in his speech is puffed up with the pride of elation as though with the power of a certain authority, saying: Hear therefore, Job, my words, and hearken to all my sayings. Behold, I have opened my mouth, let my tongue speak in my jaws. 26. Some only feign modesty. — But to speak in the jaws is to say silently, and not to cry aloud with clamours. By which words he signifies the arrogant placed within the holy Church.

For these are said to speak, as it were, in their own throat, when they cry out not against adversaries who live outside, but rebuke certain persons within the bosom of holy Church, as though they were neighbours placed close beside them. Often indeed the arrogant show that they themselves flee that very arrogance which they hold; and while they do all things so as to be hidden from no one, they yet privately relate these matters to individuals as if secretly: so that they may glory not only in their sharpness of understanding, but also in the very contempt of arrogance among men. Hence it is now said: 'Let my tongue speak in my throat.' As if it were openly said: 'What I prudently perceive against you, behold, I relate in silence.' But at times they burst forth into so great a lifting-up of shamelessness that, while others are silent, they are wont to praise what they themselves say.

Whence he adds: