Moralia in Job 1232

54. This rain is voluntary; it is not given for our own merits. Sometimes it trickles like dew, sometimes it flows abundantly like a downpour — as though He were saying: 'Unless I, who freely sprinkle the dry earth of the human heart with the drops of knowledge...' For concerning this rain it is elsewhere said: 'Thou shalt set apart, O God, a voluntary rain for Thine inheritance' (Ps. 67:10). For the Lord sets apart a voluntary rain for His inheritance, because He grants it to us not for our merits, but for the gift of His own kindness. And therefore in this place He is called the father of the rain, because the heavenly preaching is begotten for us not out of our merit, but out of His grace.

For the drops of dew are the holy preachers themselves, who pour the grace of the heavenly bounty into the fields of our breast, parched as it were amid the darkness of a dry night, in the midst of the evils of the present life. Of these drops it is said to stubborn Judea: 'Therefore the drops of the rains were withheld, and there was no latter rain' (Jer. 3:3). For those very drops of dew are the drops of the rains. For when by some dispensation they temper their preaching, they sprinkle as it were a gentle dew; but when they speak of the things they perceive from above with the power in which they prevail, they pour forth rain flowing as it were abundantly. Paul sprinkled dew when he said to the Corinthians:

'For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified' (1 Cor. 2:2). And again he poured forth rain, saying: 'Our mouth is open unto you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged' (2 Cor. 6:11). Hence it is that Moses, who knew that he was to speak both things forceful for the strong and things tender for the weak, said: 'Let my speech be awaited as the rain, and let my words descend as the dew' (Deut. 32:2). But behold, we have heard by what gift the Gentiles are called; let us now hear by what severity Judea is repelled. We have heard how He cultivates the deserts and waters the parched places; let us now hear how He casts away those things that seem, as it were, inward. For He does not so gather the elect that He does not also judge the reprobate;

nor does He so remit the faults of some, that He does not also smite in some. For it is written: 'For mercy and wrath are with Him' (Sir. 5:7). Wherefore here also, after He has bestowed so many gifts of grace, He does not hide the judgments of His wrath. For there follows: