Moralia in Job 1275

Hypocrites are like the ostrich, which has feathers but not flight. — Who does not know how greatly the heron and the hawk surpass the other birds by the swiftness of their flight? But the ostrich has a likeness of their feathers, yet it does not have the speed of their flight. For it is not able to be lifted from the earth, and it raises its wings as though for flight in appearance only, but nevertheless it never suspends itself from the earth by flying. So truly are all hypocrites, who, while they simulate the life of the good, have the imitation of holy vision, but do not have the truth of holy action.

For they have the feathers of flying in appearance, but they crawl on the earth in action, because they extend their wings by the figure of holiness, but, weighed down by the burden of secular cares, they are in no way lifted from the earth. For the Lord, reproving the appearance of the Pharisees, reproved it as it were the feather of the ostrich, which showed one thing in work and displayed another in colour, saying: Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones; even so you also outwardly indeed appear to men just, but within you are full of avarice and iniquity (Matt. 23:27). As if He said:

The appearance of the feather seems to lift you up, but the weight of your life presses you down among the lowest things. Concerning this weight it is said through the Prophet: O ye sons of men, how long will ye be heavy of heart? (Ps. 4:3). The Lord promises that He will convert the hypocrisy of this ostrich, when He says through the prophet: The beasts of the field shall glorify me, the dragons and the ostriches (Isa. 43:20). For what is expressed by the name of dragons but the openly malicious minds, which through the earth ever creep in the lowest thoughts? And what by the word of ostriches but those who feign themselves good, who retain the life of holiness as though the feather of flight in appearance, but do not exercise it through works?

The Lord therefore asserts that He is glorified by the dragon or the ostrich, because both the openly evil and the feignedly good He very often converts, from their inmost thought, to His own service. Or certainly the beasts of the field, that is, the dragons and ostriches, glorify the Lord, when the Gentile world, which in this world was long ago a member of the devil, exalts the faith which is in Him. Which He both, on account of its malice, reproaches with the name of dragons, and, on account of its hypocrisy, marks with the appellation of ostriches. For the Gentile world received, as it were, feathers, but was not able to fly, since it had the nature of reason, but was ignorant of the action of reason. — The elect have here few things that press them down, many that lift them up; the reprobate contrariwise.

— We have yet something concerning the hawk and the heron which we may more attentively weigh in the consideration of this ostrich. For the bodies of the hawk and the heron are small, but supported by denser feathers, and therefore they fly across with swiftness, because in them there is little that weighs down, much that lifts up. But on the contrary the ostrich is clothed with sparse feathers, and is weighed down by a huge body, so that even if it desires to fly, the very fewness of its feathers does not suspend the mass of so great a body in the air. Well therefore in the heron and the hawk is signified the person of the elect, who, as long as they are in this life, cannot be without some contagion, however small, of fault. But since there is in them a little something that presses down, much virtue of good action is at hand which lifts them on high.

But on the contrary the hypocrite, even if he does a few things that lift up, perpetrates many that weigh down. For neither does the hypocrite do no good things, but, by the things by which he presses down that very good, he commits many perverse ones. The few feathers, therefore, do not lift up the body of the ostrich, because the multitude of depraved action weighs down the small good of the hypocrite. This very feather of the ostrich also has, to the feathers of the heron and hawk, a likeness of colour, but not a likeness of virtue. For theirs are close-knit and firmer, and by the virtue of their solidity they can press the air in flight. But on the contrary the feathers of the ostrich are loose, and for that reason cannot take flight, in that they are surpassed by the very air which they ought to press.

What then do we behold in these but that the solid virtues of the elect fly aloft, so that they press down the winds of human favour? But the action of hypocrites, however upright it may seem, does not suffice to fly, because, namely, the breeze of human praise passes through the feather of their fluid virtue. — True Christians are to be distinguished from false ones by their fruits. — But behold, since we discern one and the same habit of the good and the evil, since we see the very appearance of profession in the elect and the reprobate, whence may it be supplied to our understanding to discern, by comprehending, the elect from the reprobate, the true from the false? Which nevertheless we more quickly recognize, if we mark, intimated into our memory, the words of our Teacher, who says:

By their fruits you shall know them (Matt. 7:20). For the things which they show in image are not to be weighed, but the things which they keep in action. Whence, after he introduced the appearance of this ostrich, he soon subjoins its deeds, saying: