Moralia in Job 1276

Hypocrites neglect to cherish and nourish by good examples those whom they beget. — For what is expressed by the egg but the offspring still tender, which is long to be cherished, that it may be brought to a living winged thing? For eggs are in themselves insensible, but nevertheless, being warmed, they are converted into living winged creatures. So truly is it certain that novice hearers and children remain cold and insensible, unless they are warmed by the solicitous exhortation of their teacher. Lest therefore, being forsaken, they grow torpid in their insensibility, they are to be cherished by the assiduous voice of teachers, until they are able both to live through understanding and to fly through contemplation. But because hypocrites, although they always work perverse things, do not nevertheless cease to speak right things;

well, therefore, since by speaking they beget children in faith or conversation, but cannot nourish them by living well, it is rightly said of this ostrich: Which leaveth her eggs in the earth. For the hypocrite neglects the care of his children, because out of inmost love he subjects himself to exterior things, in which, the more he is exalted, the less he grieves over the defect of his offspring. To have left the eggs in the earth, therefore, is by no means to suspend, by the interposed nest of exhortation, the children born through conversion above earthly deeds. To have left the eggs in the earth is to offer to the children no example of the heavenly life.

For because hypocrites do not glow with the bowels of charity, they by no means grieve over the torpor of the offspring brought forth, that is, over the coldness of their eggs; and the more willingly they insert themselves into earthly deeds, the more negligently they permit those whom they beget to do earthly things. But because the supernal care does not forsake the forsaken children of hypocrites—for it warms not a few even from among such, foreknown by inmost election, by the regard of bestowed grace—it is rightly subjoined: — The grace of God warms the children of depraved and of good teachers. — As if He said: Do I, who warm those in the dust, because, namely, I kindle the souls of little ones, even set in the midst of sinners, with the fire of My love? What is the dust but the sinner?

Whence also that enemy of ours is satiated with the perdition of this sinner, of whom it is said through the prophet: Dust is the serpent's bread (Isa. 65:25). What is demonstrated by the dust but the very instability of the wicked? Of which David says: Not so the ungodly, not so; but like the dust which the wind driveth from the face of the earth (Ps. 1:4). The Lord therefore warms the eggs left in the dust, because He kindles with the fire of His love the souls of little ones, destitute of the solicitude of their preachers, even set in the midst of sinners. Hence it is that we discern very many both living in the midst of peoples, and yet not following the life of the torpid people. Hence it is that we discern very many both not fleeing the throngs of the evil, and yet glowing with supernal ardour.

Hence it is that we discern very many, so to say, growing warm in the cold. Whence do some, set in the torpor of earthly men, burn with the desires of supernal hope, whence are they kindled amid cold hearts, except that almighty God knows how to warm the forsaken eggs even in the dust, and, the insensibility of former coldness being shaken off, to animate them through the sense of the vital spirit, so that they may by no means lie torpid in the lowest things, but, turned into living winged creatures, may suspend themselves toward the heavens by contemplating, that is, by flying? But it is to be noted that in these words not only is the perverse action of hypocrites reproved, but also, if perchance any elation should have crept in, that of good masters is pressed down.

For when the Lord says of Himself that He warms the forsaken eggs in the dust, He assuredly openly indicates that He Himself works inwardly through the words of the teacher, who even without the words of any man warms whom He wills in the cold of the dust. As if He plainly said to the teachers: That you may know that it is I who work through you who speak, behold, when I will, I speak to the hearts of men even without you. — The thought of the teachers being humbled, therefore, the discourse turns to the expressing of the hypocrite, and by what folly he is torpid is still more fully shown under the deed of the ostrich. For there follows: