Moralia in Job 1156

Verse 33. — 'He announces concerning it to his friend that it is his possession, and that he can ascend to it.' 28. To men almost despairing God promises the heavenly glory. — The friend of truth is the lover of right action. Whence Truth itself says to the disciples: 'You are my friends, if you do the things which I command you' (John 15:14). For a friend is called the keeper of the soul. Whence not undeservedly he who strives to keep the will of God in his precepts is called his friend. Hence it is that again to those same disciples Truth says: 'But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you' (ibid., 15).

Concerning this light of the eternal homeland, therefore, God announces to his friend that it is his possession, so that he may by no means despair through the frailty of his own infirmity, may by no means weigh what he was created, but what he has been re-created, but so much the more surely may know that he possesses the brightness of that light, the more truly he now treads down the darkness of the vices that assail him. And it is well subjoined in the promise: 'And that he can ascend to it.' For what is more difficult than for a man brought forth on earth and bearing earthly and frail members to climb the heights of the heavens and penetrate the secrets of the supernal spirits? 29. Christ established peace between angels and men. He made us equal to the angels.

— But the Creator of those same spirits came to us, and displayed himself as a man even beneath them, just as it is said of him to the Father through the Prophet: 'Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels' (Psalm 8:6). And because between us and those same spirits he found the scandal of a discordant life, by wondrous power, and by still more wondrous piety, creating the highest, taking up the lowest, he joined the lowest with the highest. Hence it is that, that same King being born, the choirs of angels come forth at his announcement, sing a hymn, and, the discord of an evil life being overcome, they acknowledge as fellow citizens those whom they had lately despised, proclaiming with concordant voice: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will' (Luke 2:14). As if they plainly said:

Let the goodness now born on earth join those whom malice had disjoined from us. Hence it is that before his incarnation, in the Old Testament, a man is read to have adored an angel, nor is he yet forbidden to adore (Genesis 18:2); but after the coming of the Mediator, when John had prostrated himself in adoring an angel, he heard: 'See thou do it not; I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren' (Revelation 19:10; 22:9). For what is it that formerly they granted themselves with equanimity to be adored, but afterward the angels refuse it from man, save that formerly they more justly despised man, given over to carnal corruptions and not yet redeemed from those same carnal corruptions, whom they knew to be the more abject;

but afterward they could no longer have human nature subject to them, in that they saw it, in its Author, led even above their own selves? For it ought no longer to be despised as subject in the members, which in the very Head of the members merited to be venerated as set above. He, therefore, who for our sake became lower than the angels, made us equal to the angels by the virtue of his lowering. Whence also by dying he taught us not to fear death, by rising to have confidence of life, by ascending to glory in the inheritance of the heavenly homeland, so that whither they behold the Head to have gone before, thither the members too may rejoice to follow. Whence well it is said by this same Head of ours: 'Wheresoever the body shall be, thither shall the eagles also be gathered together' (Matthew 24:28). Whence Peter says:

'Unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven' (1 Peter 1:4). Whence Paul says: 'We know that if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens' (2 Corinthians 5:1). 30. Christ alone ascended into heaven, which lies open only to his members. — But if we too, who have been brought forth on earth, climb into heaven, where is that which again Truth says: 'No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven' (John 3:13)? Against which sentence there at once stands that which this same Truth says: 'Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with me' (John 17:24).

She does not disagree with herself in her own words, but inflames the zeal of our mind to inquire into these things as though discordant. For all we who have been born in his faith are, without doubt, his body. Since, therefore, by the wondrous dispensation of his piety the Lord has been made the Head of his members, the multitude of the reprobate being repulsed, he alone is even together with us. No one, therefore, has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven (John 3:13), because while we have already been made one with him, whence he alone came in himself, thither he alone returns even in us;

and he who is always in heaven daily ascends to heaven, because he who by his divinity remains above all things, by the framework of his humanity daily draws himself to the heavens. Let not, therefore, human frailty despair; let it consider the blood of the Only-begotten, and in his price let it behold how great is that which is worth so much. Let it weigh carefully whither the Head has gone before, and, being bound by precepts unto living, let it be strengthened by the example unto hoping; let it trust the heavens, hope for the supernal homeland, know itself the companion of the angels, and rejoice that in its Head it has been set even above the angels. Let it therefore be rightly said concerning this light of the eternal homeland: 'He announces concerning it to his friend that it is his possession, and that he can ascend to it.'

12. But these things are exceedingly wondrous, exceedingly awesome: that a man brought forth on earth, and by his exacting merits condemned far from the heavenly homeland, is not only led back to the state of his condition, but is even more gloriously exalted, so that he who lost paradise may receive heaven; and not only is he not held by the guilt of his own debt, but upon this one, after his fault, gifts increase more abundantly, so that that despiser of God, that imitator of the devil, if he return to the fruit of penance, may ascend even to the height of contemplating the inmost light. Whose heart, therefore, would not leap up in wonder at this piety? Whose torpor would not be struck with awe at the uplifting of so great a consideration? Whence also it is fittingly subjoined: