Moralia in Job 1263

69. He did not follow the examples of the multitude, but proposed his own to be followed. The present life is not to be loved for its own sake, but to be endured for the sake of the life to come.—That is, he despised the ways of human intercourse. For, being made man among men, he willed not to keep the usage of men. For he was therefore made man among us, that he might not only redeem us by shedding his blood, but also transform us by showing an example. In our manner of life, therefore, both by coming he found one thing, and by living he taught another. For all who were begotten of the proud stock of Adam were eager to seek the prosperous things of the present life, to shun adversities, to flee reproaches, to pursue glory.

The incarnate Lord came among them, seeking adversities, spurning prosperity, embracing reproaches, fleeing glory. For when the Jews wished to make him their king, he refused to be made king (John 6:15). But when they sought to kill him, of his own accord he came to the gibbet of the cross (ibid. 18:4). He fled, then, what all pursue; he pursued what all flee. But when he fled what all pursue, and pursued what all flee, he did what all might wonder at—both that he himself, having died, should rise again, and by his own death should raise others from death. For there are two lives of a man existing in the body: one before death, another after the resurrection; of which the one all knew by living, the other they knew not;

and the human race attended solely to this one which it knew. The Lord came through the flesh, and, while he took up the one, he demonstrated the other. While he took up this one that was known to us, he showed forth that one which is unknown to us. For by dying he exercised the life which we hold; by rising again he opened the one which we should seek—by his own example teaching us that this life which we lead before death is not to be loved for its own sake, but to be endured for the sake of the other. Because, then, having practiced a new manner of life among men, he did not follow the ways of Babylon, well is it written of him: He despises the multitude of the city. 70. Christ forsook the multitude wandering through spacious places.

— Or certainly it is because he forsook the many who wander along the spacious road, and chose the few who walk through the narrow way. For to despise the multitude of the city is to reject from the lot of his own kingdom that part of the human race which enters the broad way (Matt. 7:13), which is also numerous because of the abundance of iniquity. There follows: