Moralia in Job 1165

Verse 6. — 'Who commandeth the snow to come down upon the earth, and the winter rains, and the shower of his strength.' 44. The holy preachers, whose conversation is in heaven, nevertheless condescend to their weak brethren. — Since the Psalmist says: 'Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow' (Psalm 51:7), what in this place do we take the snow to be, save the hearts of the saints, made white through the light of righteousness? Now waters drawn up into the higher regions are condensed, that they may become snow. But when these same snows come to the earth, they are turned again into the liquid of waters. The waters, therefore, are the minds of preachers: which, while they raise themselves up to contemplate the supernal things, are made firm by a higher understanding. And when they are caught up in the highest contemplation, they receive the strength of confirmation.

But because they are still held on earth by fraternal love, they moderate themselves down from that high understanding, and, humbly preaching to the weak, after the manner of snows they water hearts that are parched, being melted. The snows, therefore, come to the earth from the heavenly regions, when the sublime hearts of the saints, which are already fed by solid contemplation, descend, for the sake of fraternal charity, to the words of lowly preaching. For just as the snow, when it lies, covers the earth, but when it is melted, waters it, so the virtue of the saints both, by its firmness, protects the life of sinners before God, and, by its condescension, as though melted, waters the parched earth that it may bring forth fruit.

And because water is first drawn up from the lowest regions, that afterward it may be given back, sprinkled from the higher, all the saints, even when they stand upon the citadel of virtues, consider whence they were lifted up, lest they despise as abject the infirmity of another. As waters, therefore, return to the lands from which they were lifted, so the just, condescending, do not cease to remember to sinners what they themselves were. Certainly Paul had still been water on the earth, when he savored the law carnally; but, drawn up to heavenly things, he was turned into snow, because what he before savored as weak he changed into the solidity of true understanding; and yet, condescending to the brethren, as snow he sought the ground again, because even after the summits of virtues he acknowledges how unworthy he had been, saying:

'Who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor' (1 Timothy 1:13), and so forth. Behold how mercifully he remembers his own weakness, that he may with equanimity bear the infirmities of others. For as though to the earth from which it had been taken, after heaven the water returned, when after so great secrets of his contemplation Paul remembered himself a sinner, that he might be able humbly to profit sinners. Let us therefore see how this water, to be turned into the solidity of snow, is drawn up to the highest things. He says: 'Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God' (2 Corinthians 5:13). Let us see how the snow returns to the lowest, that while it is melted it may water. He says: 'Or whether we be sober, it is for you' (2 Corinthians 5:13). Let us see by what hand it is led, that both, lying, it may be able to be lifted up, and, lifted up, to be called back. He says: 'For the charity of Christ constraineth us' (2 Corinthians 5:14).

Because, therefore, the charity of Christ, which lifts up the minds of the saints to supernal things, also, by a pious governance, for the sake of fraternal love forms them to the humility of condescension, rightly is it said: 'Who commandeth the snow to come down upon the earth.' Where also it is aptly subjoined: 'And the winter rains, and the shower of his strength.' 45. The winter is the present life, in which the rains of the holy preachers abound. — For the winter is the present life, in which, even though hope now raises us to supernal things, yet the cold torpor of our mortality still binds us fast, because it is written: 'The corruptible body weigheth down the soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the sense that museth upon many things' (Wisdom 9:15).

But this winter has its rains, namely, without doubt, the preachings of the rulers. Concerning which rains, indeed, it is said through Moses: 'Let my discourse be awaited as the rain, and let my words descend as the dew' (Deuteronomy 32:2). These rains, assuredly, are suited to winter; they shall cease in summer, because, while now the heavenly life is hidden from the eyes of carnal men, it is necessary that it be bedewed for us by the preachings of the saints. But when the heat of eternal judgment shall have grown fervent, no one will then have need of the words of preachers, because, the Judge coming, each one is brought back to his own heart, so that he may perceive holy things when he can no longer do them, and may come to know, by the punishment of his own weakness, the right which he ought to have followed. Whence it is well said through the prophet:

'Gather them together like a flock for the slaughter, and sanctify them for the day of killing' (Jer. XII, 3). For on the day of killing the reprobate are sanctified, because then they perceive the holy things they ought to have done, when they can no longer escape the punishments worthy of their own wickedness. But because holy preaching will cease together with the present life — that is, the rains together with the winter — it is rightly said to the soul as it departs and hastens toward the summer of eternal happiness, in the voice of the Bridegroom who urges it: 'Arise, make haste, my love, my fair one, and come; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone' (Cant. II, 10).

For when the winter passes, the rain recedes, because when the present life is completed — in which the torpor of our corruptible flesh had bound us fast in the cloud of ignorance — every ministry of preaching ceases. For then we shall see clearly through our own eyes what now we hear more obscurely through the voices of the saints. Therefore the Lord commands the snow and the winter rains to descend upon the earth, when by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit He humbles the hearts of the saints to the ministry of preaching for the correction of sinners. Whereupon it is rightly added: 'And with the rain of His strength.' [Sect. XV.] 46. — The rain of strength is the preaching of divinity; the rain of weakness is the preaching of the humanity of Christ. — For the rain of God's strength is the preaching of His divinity.

For the rain of weakness is the preaching of His incarnation, of which it is said through Paul: 'The weakness of God is stronger than men' (1 Cor. I, 25). And again: 'Though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God' (2 Cor. XIII, 4). Now holy men so preach the weak things of His humanity that they may also pour into the hearts of their hearers the strong things of His divinity. Let us hear, through the thunder of the cloud, the rain of strength: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (John I, 1). Let us hear also the rain of weakness: 'The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us' (Ibid., 14). Let us hear the rain of strength: 'All things were made by Him, and without Him was made nothing.'

'What was made, in him was life' (ibid., 5). Let us hear that rain of his weakness: 'He came unto his own, and his own received him not' (ibid., 11). He commands, then, the rain of his strength to descend upon the earth, because through the voices of his saints he thus proclaims to us the frailties of his humanity, that he may also make known to us the wondrous and mighty things of his divinity. Yet when we hear of the power of our Maker, at once we are driven back into our own hearts by constraining dread, and, weighing so great a Judge set above us, we ponder what we have done worthily and what unworthily. Whence it is also fitly added: