Moralia in Job 1059

VERSE 24. 'He shall have mercy on him, and shall say: Deliver him, that he go not down into corruption; I have found wherein I may be propitious to him.' 5. Christ alone delivered us and made God propitious. Strength out of humility. The Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, has mercy on man in that He took the form of man (1 Timothy 2:5; Philippians 2:7); by which mercy, for redeemed man, He says to the Father: 'Deliver him, that he go not down into corruption.' As we said above, His saying is: 'Deliver man' — to show, by taking up the nature of man, that nature to be free. For from that same flesh which He took, He showed also that flesh to be free which He redeemed. Which redeemed flesh, indeed, is we ourselves, who are bound by the knowledge of our own guilt.

But we are set free by the uprightness of so great a Mediator, as He Himself says: 'If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed' (John 8:36). And well, for this redeemed man, is it said: 'Let him not go down into corruption.' For above it had been said: 'His soul shall draw near to corruption'; afterwards it is said: 'Let him not go down into corruption.' As if it said: Because, by knowing his own weakness, he is not ignorant that he is near to corruption, therefore let him not go down to the ruin of corruption. For to corruption he would justly go down, if he judged himself far from corruption by his own strength. But because he has humbly drawn near to corruption, he ought mercifully to be set free from it:

so that he may be strong against assaulting vices in proportion as he acknowledges himself weak by his own merits. For whosoever exalts himself above himself is weighed down by the very burden of his elation; and he sinks himself the more into the depths, in that, rushing into the vice of pride, he has removed himself far from Him who is truly exalted; and thence he all the more seeks the lowest, whence he esteemed himself joined to the highest; as is said through the prophet to the soul that exalts itself: 'Whom dost thou excel in beauty? Go down, and sleep with the uncircumcised' (Ezekiel 32:19).

For everyone who neglects to consider the foulness of his own weakness, but through the pride of elation attends to the glory of his own virtue, from that wherein he excels in beauty, thence he goes down; for in exalting himself concerning his own merits, thence he falls into the depths of ruin, whence he judged himself to be glorious. Who going down sleeps with the uncircumcised, because in eternal death he fails together with the other sinners. Since, therefore, this man humbly acknowledged himself to be near to corruption, it is well said of him: 'Deliver him, that he go not down into corruption,' that he may the more escape punishment, the more he turns his eyes not to his fault. But since there was none by whose merits the Lord ought to have been made propitious to us;

the Only-Begotten of the Father, taking up the form of our weakness, alone appeared just, that He might intercede for sinners (Philippians 2:7). 6. No man appeared before God as a just intercessor for men. And well, speaking for this redeemed man, the angel says: 'I have found wherein I may be propitious to him.' As if the Mediator of God and men openly said: Since there was no man who might appear before God as a just intercessor for men, I made Myself man to be propitious to men, and while I exhibited Myself man, I found wherein I might justly be propitious to men.

And because the Lord, taking up weakness, while by dying He endured our penalty, by rising again changed our corruption, well does this angel subjoin the scourges of our mortality, and has mercy upon them, saying: