Moralia in Job 1062

IBIDEM. 'And he shall see His face in jubilation.' 10. A twofold compunction, one of sorrow, the other bringing forth tears of joy. From the latter arises ineffable joy. Above it has been said (Book 23, no. 40 and following) how God, by making Himself known, affects the soul; but now it is said how, while He makes Himself known, He gladdens. For in one way is a person compunct, when, gazing inward, he is terrified by dread of his own evils; but in another way is he compunct, when, beholding the supernal joys, he is strengthened by a certain hope and security. That compunction moves afflicting and sad tears, but this glad tears. For it is called jubilation, when ineffable joy is conceived in the mind, which can neither be hidden, nor opened by words;

and yet it is betrayed by certain motions, though it be expressed by no proper words. Whence David the prophet, beholding the souls of the elect to conceive in the mind so great a joy as they cannot open in speech, said: 'Blessed is the people that knoweth jubilation' (Psalm 89:15). For he did not say, 'that speaketh,' but, 'that knoweth,' because jubilation can indeed be understood, but cannot be expressed in words. For through it is felt that which is beyond sense. And though the conscience of the one feeling suffices for the contemplating of this, how should the tongue of the one speaking suffice for the expressing of it?

Since, therefore, the light of truth, insinuating itself into our hearts, now saddens by presenting strict justice, now gladdens by opening inward joys, after the bitternesses of temptations, after the mournings of tribulations, fittingly it is subjoined: 'He shall see His face in jubilation.' 11. To that one attains not save with the mind first purged by the fire of tribulation. For into our mind, from the consideration of its own blindness, the fire of tribulation is first sent, that all the rust of vices may be burnt up; and then, with the eyes of the heart cleansed, that gladness of the heavenly fatherland is opened, so that we may first purge by mourning what we have done, and afterwards more manifestly contemplate through joys what we seek.

First, from the mind's edge the darkness of evils interposed is wiped away by burning sorrow, and then, by the flashing brilliance suddenly resplendent, the mind is illumined by the uncircumscribed light. Having in some measure beheld this, it is absorbed in the joy of a certain security, and, as if snatched beyond itself after the failing of the present life, it is in some way recreated in a certain newness. There the mind is sprinkled from an immense fountain by the infusion of the supernal dew; there it contemplates that it does not suffice for that unto which it is snatched, and, feeling the truth, it sees that it does not see how great the truth itself is. Which truth it esteems the more to be far off, the more it draws near, because unless it beheld it in some measure, it would by no means feel that it could not behold it. 12.

The mind, dazzled back by the divine light in contemplation, relapses to itself. Contemplation is not a solid and abiding vision. The effort of the mind, therefore, while it is strained toward that light, is dazzled back by the coruscating circumference of His immensity. For He Himself, filling all things, stands around all things, and therefore our mind by no means dilates itself to the comprehending of that uncircumscribed circumference, because the poverty of its own circumscription straitens it. Whence also it slips back all the more quickly to itself, and, as it were having glimpsed certain traces of the truth, it is recalled to its own depths. This vision, however, made through contemplation, not solid and abiding but, so to speak, a certain imitation of vision, is called the face of God.

For since through the face we recognize anyone, not without reason do we call the knowledge of God His face. Whence Jacob, after he had wrestled with the angel, said: 'I have seen the Lord face to face' (Genesis 32:30). As if he said: I have known the Lord, because He Himself deigned to know me. Which knowledge Paul testifies shall be made most full, saying at the end: 'Then shall I know even as also I am known' (1 Corinthians 13:12). Since, therefore, after the contests of labours, after the waves of temptations, often the soul is suspended in ecstasy, so that it may contemplate the knowledge of the divine presence, which presence nevertheless it can both feel and cannot fully attain, rightly, after so many labours, is it said of this tempted man: 'He shall see His face in jubilation.'

But because each one, the more amply he contemplates things heavenly, the more he is corrected from earthly operation, well, after the grace of contemplation, He adds the justice of operation, saying: