Moralia in Job 1053

Verse 18.—Rescuing his soul from corruption, and his life, that it may not pass into the sword. Thus the soul is rescued from corruption and from the sword of divine judgment.—For every sinner is driven from this corruption of vices to pass thither to the sword of punishments, so that from what he was here unjustly delighted, thence he may there be justly tormented. It is to be noted, therefore, that God, speaking to us through a dream, first delivers us from corruption, and afterwards from the sword, because assuredly he there snatches from the vengeance of punishment the life of him whose mind he here withdraws from the delight of sin. For he has there nothing to dread from the sword of the sentence whom here, after his amendment, the pollution of fault has not corrupted. Well therefore is it said:

Rescuing his soul from corruption, and his life, that it may not pass into the sword. For to pass from corruption to the sword is, after the vices have been committed, to arrive at torments to be endured. There follows: Verse 19.—He rebukes also through pain on the bed, and makes all his bones to waste away. In the present life, all the rest which we prepare for ourselves is disturbed by temptations. In no retreat can we live without temptations.—In Sacred Scripture a bed, or a pallet, or a couch, is sometimes taken as the pleasure of the flesh, sometimes as repose in good works, sometimes as temporal rest. For what is it that in the Gospel the Lord says to a certain man who had been healed:

Arise, take up your pallet, and go into your house (John 5:8), except that by the pallet the pleasure of the body is designated? And he is surely commanded to carry this while whole, where he had lain while sick, because assuredly everyone who still delights in vices lies sick in the pleasures of the flesh. But being healed he carries this where he had lain while sick, because by divine help, having been snatched from vices, he afterwards bears the reproaches of that same flesh in whose desires he formerly reposed. Again, by a bed or couch, repose in good works is designated. Whence in the Acts of the Apostles the apostle Peter says: Aeneas, the Lord Jesus Christ heals you; arise, and make your bed (Acts 9:34).

What is it to say, Arise, except, Forsake the evils you have committed? And what is it to say, Make your bed, except, Work the grounds of reward in which you ought to rest? that both by rising he may leave what he has done, and by making his bed he may find what he has done. Both of which the Prophet briefly comprehends, saying: Turn away from evil, and do good (Ps. 37:27). For to turn away from evil is to rise from that in which one lay; but to do good is to prepare the works of reward in which one ought to rest. For he who turns away from evil, but does not yet do good, has indeed risen from that in which he lay, but has not yet spread the place where he ought to rest. And again, a bed or couch is taken as temporal rest, as it is written:

You have turned all his couch in his sickness (Ps. 41:3). For when anyone, wearied by worldly cares, is stirred by divine grace with compunction to abandon the toilsome paths of this world, he is wont to ponder how he may flee the desires of the present life, and rest from its labors, and soon seeks for himself the order of the longed-for quiet, and, as it were a certain couch, so he desires to find a place of cessation from all labors. But because man, still placed in this life, in the place of whatever order, in the retreat of whatever seclusion, can by no means live without temptations, very often in that which is constructed for rest, a greater pain of temptation is found. Whence rightly is it said through the Prophet:

You have turned all his couch in his sickness. As if he said: All that he here prepared for himself unto rest, this you have by a hidden judgment changed for him unto disturbance. Which is indeed done by God's pious counsel, that in the time of this pilgrimage the life of the elect may be troubled. Here by God's excellent counsel we are afflicted, lest we love the way in place of the homeland.—For the way is the present life, by which we tend toward the homeland; and therefore here by a hidden judgment we are worn down by frequent disturbance, lest we love the way in place of the homeland. For usually.

some travelers, when perchance they behold pleasant meadows along the way, weave delays into their journeying, and turn aside from the straightness of the journey begun, and the beauty of the way slows their steps, while it delights them. Therefore, for his elect who are journeying to him, the Lord makes the way of this world rough, lest, while anyone is fed by the rest of the present life as by the pleasantness of the way, it should delight him rather to journey long than to arrive quickly; lest, while he is delighted on the way, he forget what he was longing for in the homeland. Because, then, in this life all our rest, which perchance we have prepared, is disturbed, rightly is it said:

He rebukes also through pain on the bed, that is, in the rest of the present life he disturbs us either with the goads of temptation or with the affliction of the scourge. For often the human mind, however briefly it may have been for a time without temptation in good pursuits, soon from those same pursuits—in which, resting, it exerts itself—is lifted up out of the very virtues by which it strives to multiply, while it perceives that it is making progress. Whence by the pious governance of our Ruler it is affected by the impulse of temptation, so that in it the very elation of its progress may be checked. Wherefore after he said: He rebukes also through pain on the bed, he fitly subjoined: And makes all his bones to waste away.

Through temptation we learn what we can do by our own powers, and what by the divine gift.—By bones in Sacred Scripture we understand virtues, as it is written: The Lord keeps all their bones; not one of them shall be broken (Ps. 34:20). Which surely is said not of the bones of the body, but of the powers of the mind. For we assuredly know that the bones of many martyrs were bodily broken, and that the persecutors of the Lord broke on the cross the legs of that thief to whom it was said, Today you shall be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43), as they did the legs of the other thief.

When therefore he rebukes through pain on the bed, he makes all the bones to waste away, because when in that rest which we prepare for ourselves from this world we are affected by the scourge of temptation, we who perchance could be puffed up over our virtues are diminished by the weariness of our recognized infirmity. For when we make progress toward God as we desire, if no temptation beat upon our progress, we would believe ourselves to be of some strength. But because it is dealt with us by the supernal dispensation, that we who while making progress forget our infirmity may, being tempted, recall it; both in our progress we recognize what we are from the divine gift, and in temptation we recognize what we are from our own powers.

Which temptation would assuredly snatch us away utterly, did not the supernal protection preserve us. But it beats, yet does not break; it drives, yet does not move; it shakes, yet does not cast down, so that from our infirmity we may feel that it is we who are shaken, and from the divine gift that it is we who stand. And because often a soul conscious to itself of some good, when it recalls its virtues to its memory, is fed with a certain delight, and is as it were fattened with congratulation of its own fullness, well is it said that when temptation beats upon it the bones waste away, because while one's own infirmity is recognized by the interrogation of temptation, all that congratulation of our powers, as it were fat and green, is suddenly by anxiety

and dried up by grief; and we who, weighing our goods, believed ourselves to be of some moment, being beaten, now every moment dread that we shall soon perish. Then all the joy of our goods is turned into the dread of punishments. Then we detect ourselves to be wicked, whom shortly before we believed to be holy. The mind wastes away, the eyes are dazed, all that before smiled prosperous vanishes; the very light is a loathing, and the darknesses of grief alone pour themselves into the soul; nothing is beheld that delights, whatever occurs is sad. Whence too there fitly follows: