Moralia in Job 1281

27. The hypocrite mocks not only the saints, but God Himself. — For what do we take the wings of this ostrich to be, but the thoughts of the hypocrite pressed down, as it were folded, at this time? Which, when the time shall be, she lifts on high (Job 39:18); because, opportunity being found, she manifests them by growing proud. To lift the wings on high is, through unbridled pride, to open one's thoughts. But now, because he feigns himself holy, because he draws tight within himself what he thinks, he as it were folds his wings on his body through humility. But it is to be noted that He does not say, 'She scorneth the horse and his rider,' but 'the horseman and his rider.'

For the horse is, for each holy soul, its own body, which indeed it knows both how to restrain from unlawful things by the bridle of continence, and again how to relax by the impulse of charity in the exercise of a good work. By the name of horseman, therefore, is expressed the soul of the holy man, which rules the beast of the body well subdued. Whence also John the apostle, contemplating the Lord in the Apocalypse, says: 'And the armies that are in heaven followed Him upon white horses' (Rev. 19:14). For the multitude of the saints who had sweated in this war of martyrdom, he rightly calls an army: who are therefore reported to sit upon white horses, because indeed their bodies shone both with the light of justice and with the whiteness of chastity.

The hypocrite therefore mocks the horseman, because, when he himself has broken forth into open iniquity, he despises the sanctity of the elect, and, being elated, calls foolish those whom, while pressed by the peace of faith, he was imitating with cunning art. But who else is the rider of this horseman, but Almighty God, who both, foreseeing them, created the things that were not, and, possessing them, rules the things that are? For He ascends the horseman, because He possesses the mind of each just man, who possesses well his members. To this hypocrite, therefore, to mock the horseman is to despise the saints; but to mock the rider of the horseman is to leap forth even to the injury of the Creator. 28. In falls one begins from the least, and arrives at the graver. The Church tolerates many hidden wicked ones.

Why the wicked are mingled with the good in the Church. By the name of the rhinoceros or unicorn the Jewish people is to be understood. By what art the rhinoceros is tamed. — For because in every fall one always begins from the least things, and, defects growing up, arrives at graver ones, rightly is the iniquity of this hypocrite distinguished by the losses set forth in succession, so that it is said that he first shows himself to be a good that he is not, then afterwards openly despises the good, and at the last even leaps forth to the injury of the Maker. For never does the soul lie there where it has fallen, because, having once voluntarily slipped, it is driven to worse things by the weight of its own iniquity, so that, rushing into the deep, it is ever still more deeply overwhelmed.

Let the hypocrite go, then, and now let him seek his own praises; afterwards let him oppress the life of his neighbors; and at some time let him exercise himself in the derision of his own Maker, so that, the loftier the things he ever devises, the deeper he plunges himself into more atrocious torments. O how many such does holy Church now tolerate, whom, when the time shall have broken forth, open temptation manifests! Who, because they do not now exert their wills against her, meanwhile press down, as it were folded, the wings of their thoughts. For because this life is led in common by both good and wicked, now the Church is visibly gathered together from the number of both, but, God judging invisibly, is discerned, and at its departure is separated from the society of the reprobate.

But now neither can the good be in her without the wicked, nor the wicked without the good. For in this time both parts joined together necessarily agree with each other, that both the wicked may be changed by the examples of the good, and the good may be purged by the temptations of the wicked. And therefore the Lord, after He had brought forth many things concerning the reprobation of hypocrites under the figure of the ostrich, soon turns His words to the lot of the elect, so that they who had heard in the former what to tolerate while fleeing it, may hear in the latter what to love while imitating it. There follows: 'Wilt thou give strength to the horse, or clothe his neck with neighing?' (Job 39:19). 29.

But perhaps, before we discuss the strength and neighing of this horse, it is asked by some that, other things being set aside — the moral sense too being postponed — both the virtue of the rhinoceros and the folly of this ostrich may be expounded. For the word of God is manna, and whatever the will of the receiver rightly craves, this indeed savors in the mouth of the one eating (Exod. 16). The word of God is earth, which, the more the labor of the seeker requires, the more abundantly it yields fruit. The understanding of the sacred eloquence ought therefore to be winnowed by manifold inquiry, because even the earth which is more often turned by plowing is made richer for produce.

What therefore we understand otherwise concerning the rhinoceros and the ostrich, we touch upon briefly, we who hasten to unravel the things that are more binding. This rhinoceros, which is also named 'monoceros' in the Greek copies, is said to be of such great strength that it is captured by no power of hunters; but, as those assert who have sweated in laborious investigation over describing the natures of animals, a virgin maiden is set before it, who opens her bosom to it as it comes to her, in which, all ferocity being laid aside, it lays down its head, and thus by those by whom it is sought to be captured, it is suddenly found as it were unarmed [or, enervated].

It is also described to be of a boxwood color, which also, when it enters into combat with elephants, is reported to strike the belly of its adversaries with that horn which it bears singularly on its nose, so that, when it wounds those parts which are softer, it easily lays low those attacking it. There can therefore be understood, by this rhinoceros, or certainly monoceros, that is, unicorn, that people which, when from the received Law it took not works but, alone among all men, elation, bore as it were, among the other beasts, a singular horn. Whence the Lord, announcing His passion as the Prophet sings, says: 'Deliver me from the mouth of the lion, and my lowliness from the horns of the unicorns' (Ps. 21:22).

For so many unicorns, or certainly rhinoceroses, arose in that nation, in that, against the teachings of truth, they trusted in the works of the Law with a singular and foolish elation. To blessed Job, therefore, holding the type of the holy Church, it is said: