Moralia in Job 1196

VERSE 5. — 'Or who hath stretched the line upon it?' 26. From the saints is to be taken the rule of living. — For a line is stretched upon this earth, when to each chosen soul there are shown, for taking up the rule of living, the examples of the fathers who went before, so that from their life he may consider what to keep in his own deeds, so that, having regard to the path of the just boundary, he may neither cast himself down by negligence below the least things, nor stretch himself up by pride toward the greatest things, nor endeavor to fulfill less than suffices, nor snatch at more than he has received, lest either he fail to reach the measure which he owes, or, deserting that same measure, fall outside the boundary. For 'strait is the gate that leadeth unto life' (Matt. 7:14);

and he enters through it who, in all that he does, is anxiously straitened by subtlety of discernment for its sake. For he who by his own pleasures spreads himself out with an unconcerned mind, shuts against himself the approach of the strait gate. In order therefore that the measure of this earth may be preserved, a line is stretched divinely upon it, because, in order that our works, whether lesser or greater, may profit and be governed, the subtle life of the saints is spread out before us through the sacred oracles, and how much and how far we are to act is determined by the discernment of them shown to us. 27. In the examples of Peter is set forth the measure of authority and of humility.

— Behold, someone, fearing either loss of goods or affliction of the body, dreads the threats of earthly power, and does not presume to defend the truth against the force of those who resist. Him Peter, because he looks upon one straitened in fear, by the line of his own examples shown, stretches to the breadth of virtue. For he himself, scourged by the rulers of the people (Acts 5:40), when he perceived himself released for this end, that he should cease from preaching; when he was forbidden to speak in the future, in no wise yielded even for the present. For answering forthwith, he said: 'We ought to obey God rather than men' (ibid. 4:29 [5:29]). And again: 'For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.'

But that man, but now weak and dreading present losses, while he contemplates examples of so great fortitude, now follows the line of Peter in the authority of the word, now fears no adversity, now despises even with laceration of the body the powers of the world that resist God. But yet, the more strongly he destroys by patient endurance the strength of persecutors, and the more he yields to no terrors amid adversities, so much the more oftentimes does he set himself before others even in those things which, placed among the faithful, he has perceived, and chooses rather his own counsels, and trusts himself rather than others. Here indeed, while, not yielding to unjust objections, he exerts himself in virtue, not receiving even the right counsels of others, he stretches his foot beyond the boundary.

Him Peter calls back within the line of measure, who, after with liberty of speech he had pressed down the authority of rulers, through humility of heart heard Paul's counsel concerning the Gentiles not being circumcised (Acts 15). For he took care thus to raise himself against adversaries by authority, that yet he would not trust himself in those things wherein he did not rightly perceive; so that both by the liberty of fortitude he would surpass the swelling powers, and by the humility of meekness he would exhibit obedience in right counsel even to lesser brethren, and now would meet others through himself, now himself together with others.

In the deeds of Peter, therefore, a certain line of authority and of humility is stretched before our eyes, lest our mind either through fear should not reach the measure, or through swelling should exceed the boundary. 28. Discernment counsels sometimes to exercise the works of the same virtue, sometimes to omit them. — It has been said how the line is stretched, lest through the fortitude of one action there be a passing over to the vice of another cause; let it now be said how in one and the same virtue we desert the line of discernment, if we know not both to do this sometimes and sometimes to lay it aside. For virtue is not always the same thing, because through the moments of times the merits of actions are often changed.

Whence it comes to pass that when we are doing something well, it is often better to cease from the doing of it, and it is more praiseworthy for a time to abandon that which at its proper time the mind was praiseworthily holding. For if, on account of our own goods — those least things by whose doing we profit, yet by whose intermission we are not undone — greater evils of labors threaten our neighbors, of necessity we set aside the increases of our virtues, lest we beget for weaker neighbors detriments of faith, lest that which we do be by so much the less a virtue, by how much through occasion of itself it destroys in others' hearts the foundations of virtues. 29. An example of this discernment in holy Paul. — How well did Paul stretch this line of discernment before the eyes of those who behold, who both forbade the Gentiles coming to the liberty of faith to be circumcised (Acts

15:2), and yet, passing through Lystra and Iconium, he himself circumcised Timothy, who had been born of a Gentile father (Acts 16:3). For seeing that unless he should show himself to keep the commands of the letter, he would rouse the fury of the Jews even against those who were then present as companions to him, he set aside the force of his own assertion, and without harm to the faith guarded himself and his companions from the savagery of persecution. He did what he had, out of love of the faith, forbidden to be done, but he turned to the ministry of the faith that which he did as though not faithfully. For often a virtue, when held indiscreetly, is lost; and when discreetly laid aside, it is the more retained. Nor is it any wonder if we understand in incorporeal things what we see done also in corporeal things.

For it is out of zeal that a bow is unbent, that in its proper time it may with usefulness be bent. And if it does not receive the leisure of relaxation, it loses by that very use the power of striking through tension. So sometimes virtue in exercise, when it is passed over through discernment, is reserved, that it may afterwards strike vices the more powerfully, by how much in the meantime it prudently ceases from striking. A subtle line of discernment, therefore, is stretched upon this earth, when, the examples of the preceding fathers being shown to each soul, virtue is both usefully kindled to action, and sometimes more usefully tempered. 30.

It must be taken care of, lest under the name of discernment one serve one's own advantages. — But when for a little while the fortitude of zeal is laid aside from the work, there is need of deep consideration, lest perchance one cease from the exercise of virtue not by any counsel of the common good, but by one's own fear or by the study of some ambition. For when this is done, one no longer serves dispensation, but guilt. Whence it must anxiously be taken care of that, when someone dispenses the business undertaken with a cessation from virtue, he should first inspect himself in the root of the heart, lest through this he as a covetous man seek something for himself, lest through this he as a timid man spare himself alone; and lest that become wicked which follows in the work, in that it is not begotten out of a right intention of thought. Whence well in the Gospel the Truth says:

'The lamp of thy body is thine eye. If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be darksome' (Matt. 6:22). For what is expressed by the eye but the intention of the heart, going before its own work? which, before it exerts itself in action, already contemplates that which it desires. And what is designated by the appellation of the body but each single action, which follows its intention as an eye that beholds? The lamp of the body, therefore, is the eye, because through the ray of a good intention the merits of the action are made bright. And 'if thine eye be single, thy whole body'

'shall be lightsome,' because if we intend rightly through simplicity of thought, a good work is wrought, even if it should seem to be less good. And 'if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be darksome,' because when with a perverse intention anything even upright is done, though it be seen to shine before men, yet before the examination of the inner Judge it is darkened. Whence also it is rightly subjoined: 'Take heed therefore lest the light that is in thee be darkness. If then the light that is in thee be darkness, how great shall that darkness be?' (ibid. 23). Because if we obscure by an evil intention that which we believe ourselves to do well, how great are those evils themselves which we do not fail to know are evil even while we do them?

And if we see nothing there, where we hold as it were the light of discernment, with what blindness do we stumble in those things which we perpetrate without discernment? With watchful care, therefore, through all our works our intention must be weighed by us, that it seek nothing temporal in those things which it does, that it fix itself safely in the solidity of eternity, lest, if the building be set outside the foundation of our action, it be dissolved by the yawning of the earth. Whence here also it is aptly subjoined: