Moralia in Job 134

Vers. 13, 14, 15. — Now when on a certain day his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their first-born brother, a messenger came to Job, who said: The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them, and the Sabeans rushed in and took away all things, and smote the servants with the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell thee. 71. Faith is the first of all the virtues. — In the heart of the elect the wisdom of the good things that follow is first born, and this is brought forth by the gift of the Spirit as it were a first-born offspring. Which wisdom, indeed, is our faith, the prophet testifying, who says: Unless ye believe, ye shall not understand (Isa. 7:9 acc. to LXX).

For then we truly have understanding unto knowing, when to all that the Creator says we render the faith of our belief. In the house therefore of the first-born brother the sons feast, when the remaining virtues banquet in faith. Which if it be not first begotten in our heart, no others whatever can be good, even if they seem good. In the house of the first-born brother the sons feast, while our virtues in the dwelling of faith are satisfied with the food of sacred eloquence. For it is written: Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Then therefore our virtues take up the true banquets of life, when they begin to be nourished by the mysteries of faith.

In the house of the first-born brother the sons feast, because unless the remaining virtues, filled with the banquets of wisdom, do prudently the things they aim at, they can by no means be virtues. 72. In how varied a way the devil lays snares for our virtues. — But behold, while the good things we do are fed with the banquets of wisdom and of faith, our enemy takes away the plowing oxen and the feeding asses, and slays the servants with the sword. What do we take the plowing oxen to be, but our weightier thoughts? which, while they work upon the heart with studious exercise, render rich fruits of progress. What do we understand by the feeding asses, but the simple motions of the heart?

which, while we studiously restrain them from the error of duplicity, we as it were nourish in the field of free purity. But often the crafty enemy, when he beholds weighty thoughts in the heart, corrupts them under an introduced delight of pleasure; and when he sees the simple motions of the heart, he displays the subtle points of inventions; so that while praise is sought for subtlety, the simplicity of purity is lost; and if he cannot draw it on even to a depraved deed, yet by tempting he does harm to the thoughts of the good, filching from them; so that while he is known to disturb the good things of the mind, he may seem to have taken them away as it were from the very foundation. By the plowing oxen also the thoughts of charity may be understood;

by which we endeavor to profit others, when we desire by preaching to cleave the hardness of a brother's heart. By the asses also, which indeed with no madness of fierceness resist those loading them, the meekness of patience may be signified. And often the ancient enemy, when he beholds us wishing to profit others by speaking, plunges the mind into a certain torpor of sloth; so that it may not please us to profit others, even when it is free from its own concerns. He takes away therefore the plowing oxen, when he breaks the thoughts of the mind given over to the fruits of a brother's usefulness, through a submitted torpor of negligence.

And although the hearts of the elect keep watch within the secret places of their own thought, and, surmounting, weigh what one endures from the tempter, yet by that very thing the malignant enemy rejoices to have snatched something away, in that he prevails against the thoughts of the good even for a moment. [Old, XXXIV.] 75. With how great vigilance his attempts must be met. The gift of discernment in temptation. — But often, when he sees the mind prepared for endurance, he seeks out what is most loved by it, and there inserts the snares of scandal, so that the more any thing is loved, the more easily through it patience may be disturbed. And indeed the hearts of the elect always return solicitously to themselves, and grievously afflict themselves even for a slight motion of excess;

and while, being moved, they learn how they ought to have stood, sometimes being better shaken they are made solid. But the ancient enemy, while he disturbs the thoughts of endurance even for a moment, exults as it were to have carried off the asses from the field of the heart. Now in those things which we dispose ourselves to do, we solicitously weigh with reasonable guardianship what is fitting for what things. But often the enemy, while he rushes upon us with a sudden perturbation of temptation, forestalling unexpectedly the circumspections of the heart, as it were slays the very servants, the guards, with the sword. Yet one flees, to announce that the others have perished, because in that which the mind suffers from the enemy, the discernment of reason always returns to the soul;

and it indicates as it were that it alone has escaped, which within itself strongly weighs whatever it has endured. The others therefore perishing, one returns to the house, while, the motions being disturbed in temptation, discernment recurs to the conscience; so that what the mind, forestalled by sudden assaults, weighs itself to have lost, this, afflicted, it may recover by the zeal of compunction.