Moralia in Job 1236

67. What the Pleiades and Arcturus are. Weighing God's omnipotence, we are admonished of our own weakness. — The Pleiades are stars named from plurality (from the Greek). And they were so created near to one another yet separated, that they are both together and yet can by no means be joined, so that they are indeed joined by nearness, but disjoined by touch. Arcturus, however, so illumines the nocturnal seasons that, set in the axis of heaven, it turns itself through diverse regions, yet does not set. For it is not carried round running outside itself, but, situated in one place, in no part of the world is it inclined so as to fall. What is it, then, that man, made from earth and placed on the earth (Gen.

2:7), is questioned about the heavenly administration, since he cannot join the Pleiades, which he sees created near to one another and almost joined; since he cannot dissipate the circuit of Arcturus, which nevertheless he can behold as though scattered by its own very turning? Is it not that, weighing the power of the Author in these ministries, he may remember his own weakness, and may ponder how inestimable is He — whom he could not yet behold in His majesty — in the very governance of the heavenly ministries? THE MYSTICAL SENSE. — By the name of the Pleiades the saints are designated. — 68. But why do we speak these things, we who are urged by the goad of reason to recognize these words as pregnant with mystical senses? [Ch.

28.] For what else do the glittering Pleiades, which are also seven, announce, but all the saints, who amid the darkness of the present life illumine us with the light of the sevenfold grace of the Spirit — who, from the very origin of the world even unto its end, sent at diverse times to prophesy, are in some respect joined to one another, and in some respect disjoined? For the stars of the Pleiades, as was said above, are joined to one another by nearness, and disjoined by touch. They are indeed situated together, and yet they pour forth the rays of their light each singly. So all the saints, appearing at one and another time for preaching, are both disjoined by the sight of their appearance, and joined by the intention of the mind.

They shine together, because they preach one thing; but they do not touch themselves, because they are apportioned in divided times. 69. All, even those who preceded Christ, preach Him and the mystery of the Trinity. — At how diverse times did Abel, Isaiah, and John appear! They were indeed divided in time, but not in preaching. For Abel, signifying the passion of our Redeemer, offered a lamb in sacrifice (Gen. 4:4), of whose passion Isaiah says: 'As a lamb before the shearer he shall be dumb, and shall not open his mouth' (Isa. 53:7). Of whom John also says: 'Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world' (John 1:29).

Behold, though sent indeed at divided times, yet concordantly perceiving the innocence of our Redeemer, they spoke of the same Lamb — John by pointing Him out, Isaiah by foreseeing, Abel by offering; and Him whom John held in showing, whom Isaiah in speaking, this same Abel held in his hands by signifying. 70. Since, therefore, we have said how the stars of the Pleiades chime together concerning the humanity of the Redeemer, let us now show how they shine concordantly in displaying the unity of the Trinity. For at diverse times David, Isaiah, and Paul appeared to this world; but nevertheless none of them perceived differently from the other, because, although they did not know one another by face, yet they had learned the one God by divine knowledge.

For David, to show God the Author of all things in the Trinity, said: 'May God, our God, bless us; may God bless us' (Ps. 66:7-8 [67:6-7]). And lest, by naming God a third time, he should be thought to have said three Gods, he immediately, intimating the unity of that same Trinity, added: 'And let all the ends of the earth fear Him' (ibid.). For he who subjoined not 'them,' but 'Him,' intimated that the three things he had said were one. Isaiah also, when he opened the praise concerning the unity of the Trinity, expressing the voices of the Seraphim, said: 'Holy, holy, holy' (Isa. 6:3); and lest, by naming 'holy' a third time, he should seem to divide the unity of the divine substance, he adjoined: 'the Lord God of hosts.'

Because, therefore, he added not 'Lords, gods,' but 'the Lord God,' he indicated that what he had a third time called holy exists as one. Paul also, to show the operation of the holy Trinity, said: 'Of Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things' (Rom. 11:36). And that he might intimate the unity of that same Trinity, he immediately added: 'To Him be glory unto the ages of ages, Amen' (ibid.). For he who subjoined not 'to them,' but 'to Him,' made known one thing naturally, three according to persons — which above, a third time, he called the selfsame. As it were, therefore, the Pleiades are situated in one place, because they think concordantly of God, and yet they do not touch themselves, because, as was said, they are apportioned through the diverse times of this world.

All the saints are joined together by a unanimity of faith and of virtues. The prophet Ezekiel describes this well and briefly, for when he said that he saw living creatures of diverse kinds, he added: 'And the wings of the one were joined to the wings of the other' (Ezek. 1:9). For the wings of the creatures are joined one to another, because although the things they do are unlike, yet by one and the same purpose the voices and virtues of the saints are bound together with one another.

And although one man, by doing all things reasonably, is a man; another, being strong amid sufferings and not fearing the world's adversities, is a lion; another, by offering himself as a living sacrifice through abstinence, is a calf; and another, snatching himself up into the heights by the flight of contemplation, is an eagle; yet as they fly they touch one another with their wings, because they are joined both by the confession of their voices and by the unanimity of their virtues. And because it belongs to the divine power alone both to join together those sent in the preaching of the faith at separate times, and to unite those endowed with unlike virtues by the brightness of a single intention, it is rightly said: 'Wilt thou be able to join together the shining stars of the Pleiades?'

As if He were to say: as I do, who alone fill all things, and who, by filling the minds of the elect with the sense of unity, join them together. Arcturus signifies the whole Church. It teaches the necessity of faith together with good works. But in Arcturus, which by its circuit lights up the spaces of the night without setting, there is designated not the life of the saints put forth piecemeal, but the whole Church together, which indeed endures wearinesses, yet is not bent from the uprightness of its own state:

it bears the circuit of its labors, but does not hasten to its setting with the passing of the times. For Arcturus is not led down to the lowest part of the sky with the coming of nighttime, but while it itself revolves, the night comes to an end; because assuredly, while the holy Church is shaken by countless tribulations, the shadow of the present life is brought to a close; and while she stands firm, the night passes away, because while she endures unharmed, the life of this mortality runs its course. There is in Arcturus something we may consider more attentively. For it revolves in seven stars, and now indeed it raises three to the summit and inclines four to the lowest part, and now it lifts four higher and presses three lower down.

The holy Church too, when at one time she preaches to unbelievers the knowledge of the Trinity, and at another time to the faithful the four virtues, that is, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice, in a manner changes the appearance of her state by the wheeling, as it were, of her preaching. For when to certain men who boast of their own works she empties out confidence in their own labor, and exalts faith in the Trinity, what else does she do but that Arcturus raises three stars and inclines four? And when she forbids certain men who have no good works to presume on faith alone, but bids them to work more earnestly at what has been commanded, what else does Arcturus do but that it lifts four stars and puts down three? Let us see how it raises three and puts down four.

Behold, through Paul it is said to those who are proud of their works against faith: 'If Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not before God' (Rom. 4:2). For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto justice' (Gen. 15:6). Let us see how it raises four and puts down three. Behold, through James it is said to those who are proud of faith against works: 'As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead' (Jas. 2:26). Arcturus therefore revolves, because the holy Church, according to the minds of her hearers, turns herself now to one side, now to the other in the art of her preaching. Arcturus revolves, because she is wheeled about amid the tribulations of this night.

But this circuit of Arcturus the Lord one day breaks up, because He changes the labors of the Church into rest. Then too He joins the Pleiades more fully, when He destroys the circuit of Arcturus, because then assuredly all the saints are joined to one another even by the appearance of vision, when at the end of the world the holy Church is released from the labors which she now bears. Let Him therefore say: 'Wilt thou be able to join together the shining stars of the Pleiades, or wilt thou be able to break up the circuit of Arcturus?' You understand: as I, who then unite the life of the saints even in outward appearance, when I bodily dissolve the circuit of the universal Church. And what man is ignorant that this belongs to the divine power alone? But that man may recognize what he himself is, let him constantly remember what the Lord alone can do.

Again, by Arcturus the old Law is signified, by the Pleiades the grace of the New Testament. We still have something else that we may perceive concerning the stars of the Pleiades and Arcturus. For the Pleiades rise from the East, but Arcturus from the region of the North. And wheresoever Arcturus turns itself by its circuit, it points to the Pleiades; and when the light of day is now near, the order of its stars is spread out. By Arcturus therefore, which is born from the quarter of the cold, the Law may be designated; but by the Pleiades, which rise from the East, the grace of the New Testament. For the Law had come as it were from the North, which terrified those under it with so great a harshness of rigidity.

For when for their faults it commanded that some should be overwhelmed with stones, others punished with the death of the sword, being a numbing region, and as it were estranged from the sun of charity, it pressed down the seeds of its precepts more by cold than it nourished them by warmth. The weight of this oppression Peter had shuddered at, when he said: 'Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?' (Acts 15:10). Nor is it any wonder that by the seven stars of Arcturus the Old Testament is expressed, since by the veneration of the Law the seventh day was held venerable, and throughout the whole week the vows of the appointed sacrifice were extended. But the Pleiades, which themselves also, as we said above, are seven,

they indicate the grace of the New Testament the more openly, the more clearly we all discern that through it the Holy Spirit illuminates His faithful with the light of a sevenfold gift. Wheresoever therefore Arcturus turns, it points to the Pleiades, because through everything that the Old Testament speaks, the works of the New Testament are announced. For beneath the text of the letter it covers the mystery of prophecy. And Arcturus, as it were, inclines itself and shows them, because when it is bent to the spiritual understanding, the light of sevenfold grace signified through it is disclosed. And as the light of day draws near, the order of its stars is spread out, because after the Truth had made Himself known to us through Himself, He loosed the precepts of the letter from the carnal observances.

Christ alone had all the operations of the Holy Spirit remaining in Himself. But our Redeemer, coming in the flesh, joined the Pleiades, because He had the operations of the sevenfold Spirit together in Himself, both all of them and abiding. Of whom it is said through Isaiah: 'A rod shall come forth out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him' (Isa. 11:1-3). Of whom Zechariah says: 'Upon one stone there are seven eyes' (Zech. 3:9). And again: 'And upon the golden candlestick seven lamps' (Zech. 4:2).

But no man ever had at once all the operations of the Holy Spirit, save only the Mediator of God and men, whose is that same Spirit who proceeds from the Father before the ages. Well therefore is it said: 'Upon one stone there are seven eyes.' For to this stone, to have seven eyes is to retain at once in operation every power of the Spirit of sevenfold grace. For one receives prophecy, another knowledge, another mighty works, another kinds of tongues, another the interpretation of speech, according to the distribution of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:8); but no one attains to having all the gifts of the same Spirit.

But our Creator, taking upon Himself our weaknesses, since through the power of His divinity He taught that He had all the powers of the Holy Spirit together, without doubt joined the shining Pleiades. But while He joins the Pleiades, He breaks up the circuit of Arcturus, because while He, made man, made known that He had all the operations of the Holy Spirit, He loosed in the Old Testament the labor of the letter, so that every faithful man might now understand with the liberty of the spirit that which formerly, amid so many perils, he served in dread. Let blessed Job therefore hear: 'Wilt thou be able to join together the shining stars of the Pleiades?' As if it were openly said:

You can indeed have the lights of certain virtues, but can you at once exercise all the operations of the Holy Spirit? Contemplate Me therefore joining the Pleiades in all virtues, and restrain yourself from pride over your few. Hear what is said: 'Or wilt thou be able to break up the circuit of Arcturus?' As if it were openly said to him: And though you now perceive what things are right, do you by your own power destroy in the hearts of others the labor of a coarser understanding? Consider Me therefore, who correct the foolish things of carnal men, while I make Myself manifest through the foolishness of the flesh, so that you may humble those things which you think are the strong points of your virtues all the more, the less you grasp even the traces of My weakness.

But because in the very mystery of the Lord's incarnation the light of truth is shown to some, while the hearts of others are darkened through scandal, it is rightly subjoined: