Moralia in Job 1316

Here we only behold God from afar. — For however much anyone placed in this life may have advanced, he does not yet see God through His essence, but through a riddle and a mirror. When we look at things near at hand, we discern them more truly; but when we stretch our gaze to things farther off, we grow dim under an uncertain vision. Since, therefore, holy men raise themselves into lofty contemplation, and yet cannot see God as He is, it is well said of this eagle: 'Her eyes behold from afar.' As if He said: they stretch the keen edge of their intention mightily, but they do not yet behold at close range Him the greatness of whose brightness they can by no means penetrate. For from the incorruptible light the murk of our corruption darkens us;

and since that Light can in some measure be seen, and yet the Light itself cannot be seen as it is, it shows how far off it is. And if the mind did not somehow perceive it, neither would it see that it is far off. But if it already perceived it perfectly, then assuredly it would not be seeing it as though through a mist. Since, therefore, it is neither wholly seen nor again wholly unseen, it is rightly said that God is seen from afar. Isaiah's testimony on this matter. By the steps of the active life one ascends to the summit of contemplation. — It is pleasing to bring forward into the midst the words of Isaiah, and to show that these and those are uttered by one and the same Spirit. For when he was expressing the virtues of the active life, saying:

'He that walketh in righteousness, and speaketh truth; that casteth away avarice from extortion, and shaketh his hands from every bribe; that stoppeth his ears lest he hear of blood, and shutteth his eyes lest he see evil' (Isaiah 33:15) — straightway from the same steps of the active life, showing to what summits of contemplation one may ascend, he added, saying: 'He shall dwell on high; the fortifications of the rocks shall be his loftiness; bread is given him, his waters are sure. His eyes shall see the King in his beauty, they shall behold the land afar off' (ibid. 16-17). For to dwell on high is to set the heart on heavenly things.

And the fortifications of the rocks are our loftiness, when we look to the precepts and examples of the mighty fathers and are separated from base thinking. The fortifications of the rocks are our loftiness, when in mind we are joined to the heavenly choirs and camps, and, standing in the citadel of the heart, we overcome as though beneath us the malignant spirits that lie in wait. Then bread also is given us, because our intention, raised on high, is refreshed by the contemplation of eternity. For our waters are sure, because the teaching of God gives there in reward what it here promises through hope. For the wisdom of this world is unfaithful, because it does not endure after death.

Our waters are sure, because the words of life, what they intimate before death, this they also demonstrate after death. Our eyes behold the King in His beauty, because our Redeemer will be seen as a man in the judgment even by the reprobate, but to gaze upon the loftiness of His divinity only those who are the elect are raised up. For to see the King, as it were, in a certain foulness is to discern only the servile form in which He was despised by the wicked. But by the elect the King is discerned in His beauty, because, caught up beyond themselves, they fix the eyes of their heart upon the very splendour of His divinity. And because, so long as they are in this life, they cannot see, as it is, that homeland of the living, it is rightly added: 'They shall behold the land afar off' (ibid.). What therefore He here says:

'The eagle shall be raised up, and shall set her nest on high,' is there said: 'He shall dwell on high.' What is here said: 'She abides in the rocks, and dwells among the broken crags and inaccessible cliffs,' is there subjoined: 'The fortifications of the rocks shall be his loftiness.' What is again here brought in: 'Thence she beholds her food,' is there also added: 'Bread is given him, his waters are sure; his eyes shall see the King in his beauty.' And what is here subjoined: 'Her eyes behold from afar,' is there fitly subjoined: 'They shall behold the land afar off.' How sublime an eagle Paul was. — Let us consider how sublime an eagle Paul was, who flew even to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2),

yet, placed in this life, still beholds God from afar, who says: 'We see now through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face' (1 Corinthians 13:12). And again: 'I do not reckon myself to have laid hold of it' (Philippians 3:13). But although he himself beholds eternal things far less than they are, although he knows that he cannot know them perfectly, yet he cannot by his preaching pour into weak hearers even those very things which he is able to see at least through a glass and an image. For he speaks of himself as though of another, saying: 'He heard secret words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter' (2 Corinthians 12:4).

Inward things, therefore, although they may seem least and lowest, are yet the highest to strong preachers, but to weak hearers incomprehensible. Whence also holy preachers, when they perceive that their hearers cannot grasp the word of the divinity, descend to the words of the Lord's incarnation alone. Whence well here, while the eagle, uplifted on high, is said to see from afar, it is straightway brought in: