Moralia in Job 1436 part 2/2

So that both the good may be held within the measure of the heavenly fabric, and the evil may remain outside the fabric, in whom the things reckoned good are not, as it were without measure. 12. This line and reed of measure our Redeemer held in His hand, when He deigned to admonish the apostle Paul through the man of Macedonia who appeared, so that the same man of Macedonia said: 'Pass over and help us' (Acts 16:9). And yet when the apostles wished to go to preach in Asia, the Spirit of Jesus did not permit it.

What is it that the holy apostles are both called to go where perhaps they were not thinking of going, and are forbidden to go thither where they desired to go, except that the line of hidden judgment and the reed of measure is held in the hand, so that some may hear the words of life, and others may by no means deserve to hear? The line of measure therefore is that which was drawn in one direction, drawn back from another. 13. From the holy Gospel too, by its testimony, we have learned that one came who said: 'Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou shalt go' (Matt. 8:19). To whom it was answered: 'The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head' (ibid. 20). Another came who said: 'Master, suffer me first to go and bury my father.'

To whom it is said: 'Let the dead bury their dead; but follow thou me, and preach the kingdom of God' (ibid. 21, 22). What is it that the one promises to go, and is forsaken; the other wishes to return home, and yet is bidden that he ought to follow? The one is not received, the other is not released from service even for a moment's hour. By the inward dispensation therefore of hidden judgment the line and the reed of measure is led, in which both this one is drawn, and that one is left, so that the heavenly fabric may not be constructed without pious and just scrutiny. 14.

The reed of measure can also be understood as Holy Scripture, for this reason: that whosoever reads it measures himself in it—either how much he advances in spiritual virtue, or how far he has remained separated from the good things that were commanded; how much he already rises to doing good, or how far he still lies prostrate in depraved acts. There follows: Ibid. 'And He stood in the gate.' 15. Whosoever stands in the gate is in one part within, but in another part without, because one thing of him is beheld without, another is hidden within. Our Redeemer therefore, mercifully incarnate for us, stood before human eyes as it were in the gate, because both through His humanity He appeared visible, and He kept Himself invisible in His Godhead.

Hence the Jews, who had been awaiting Him according to the promise of the prophets, were thrown into confusion by the treachery of their unbelief, because they saw as mortal the very One whom they had believed would come for their deliverance. He, therefore, who stands in the gate, as was said above, is seen partly on the outside and partly on the inside. Thus not even the very treachery of the Jews was abandoned without a showing forth of divine power. For seeing His miracles, they were drawn to believe; yet again, weighing His sufferings, they disdained to believe Him to be God, since they saw Him mortal in the flesh; whence it came about that they doubted concerning the knowledge of Him.

For they saw Him hungering, thirsting, eating, drinking, growing weary, sleeping, and they judged Him to be a mere man. They saw Him raising the dead, cleansing lepers, giving light to the blind, casting out demons, and they perceived Him to be more than man. But His very miracles, when pondered in their heart, His humanity disturbed. Whence holy Church, under the voice of the bride, already longing to see Him openly, says: «Behold, He standeth behind our wall» (Cant. II, 9). For He who showed to human eyes that which He had assumed of mortal nature, and yet remained invisible in Himself, stood as it were behind a wall before those who sought to see Him in the open, because He did not offer Himself to be seen with majesty made manifest.

For He stood as it were behind a wall, who displayed the nature of the humanity which He assumed, yet hid the nature of the divinity from human eyes. Whence there also follows: «Looking through the windows, gazing through the lattices» (Ibid.). For whoever looks through windows or through lattices is neither wholly hidden nor wholly seen. Just so, without doubt, our Redeemer appeared before the eyes of those who doubted; for if, working miracles, He had suffered nothing as man, He would have appeared to them fully as God; and again, suffering human things, if He had done nothing as God, He would have been thought a mere man.

But because He both did divine things and endured human things, He looked forth upon men as it were through windows or lattices, so that He might both appear as God from His miracles and be hidden from view by His sufferings, and be discerned as man from His sufferings, yet be acknowledged to be more than man from His miracles. But since this man is said to stand in the gate, we must inquire whether with His face inward and His back outward. In this matter, if we consider what precedes and what is joined afterward, we more quickly discover in what manner he stood. For first it is said: «It was like the building of a city inclining toward the south, and He brought me thither.» And a little after, concerning the same man, it is added: «Now He stood in the gate.» And straightway there follows: «And the same man spoke to me» (v. 4).

For He who, when the prophet had been brought into the building, spoke while standing in the gate, assuredly it is established that He stood with His face inward and His back outward. But the prophet who was brought in, to whom the man standing in the gate spoke, beyond doubt held his face toward the gate, whence he heard the words of the speaker. What is it, then, that the man looks inward, the prophet outward? What is it that the face of that same man is toward the building, but the eyes of the prophet toward the gate, unless that the Only-Begotten of the Father was for this cause incarnate, that He might bring us in to the spiritual building, that is, to the faith of holy Church? Whose eyes ever behold His own building, because they attend unceasingly how much each one advances in virtues.

But the prophet looks toward the gate, because he who hears the words of God ought ever to fix the eyes of his heart upon his end, and without ceasing to meditate when he shall depart from the present life and attain to eternal joys. For it was for this that God became incarnate, that He might bring us in to faith, and lead us back to the vision of His own likeness. Whence also in the holy Gospel the Truth speaks, saying: «By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures» (John X, 9). He shall go in, namely, to faith; he shall go out, however, to vision; and he shall find pastures in eternal fullness. Hence also the Psalmist says: «The Lord keep thy going in and thy going out» (Ps. CXX, 8).

For the Lord keeps the going in of each soul, whereby it enters to faith, and also the going out whereby it goes out to vision, so that neither entering the Church may it be tripped up by errors, nor going out from this temporal to the eternal may it be seized by the ancient enemy. But concerning this going out of ours, which we ought daily to meditate in mind, the Apostle speaks of our Redeemer, saying: «That He might sanctify the people by His own blood, He suffered outside the gate. Let us go forth therefore to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one to come» (Heb. XIII, 12, 13, 14).

The man, therefore, who appeared, stood in the gate and thus spoke, since Christ Jesus, the Mediator of God and men, even at the very time of His Passion gave the precepts of life to His disciples, so that those who believe in Him should ever look toward the gate, and, weighing His Passion with anxious consideration, should not turn the eyes of their heart away from their own going out.

We too, when we have already begun to despise the enclosures of the flesh, to pass through the straits of our mortality by desire for immortality, to stretch toward the freedom of the light on high, to pant after the joys of the heavenly homeland, hold our eyes toward the gate; because while we desire to pass from things temporal to things eternal in the sacraments, we have, as it were, already turned our backs upon the present life, and hold the face of our heart in the desire of our going forth. For it is written: «The corruptible body weigheth down the soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the mind that museth upon many things» (Wis. IX, 15). Thus therefore, through contemplation, we already stretch in mind beyond the straits of the flesh, and yet in the sacraments which we have come to know we are held within the gate by that same fleshly straitness.

For often the mind is so suspended in divine contemplation that already it rejoices to perceive somewhat, through a certain image, of that eternal freedom «which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard» (1 Cor. II, 9); yet, beaten back by the weight of its mortality (Isai. LXIV, 6), it slips down to the depths, and is held bound by certain chains of its own punishment. He, therefore, attends to the gate, who beholds the joys of his true freedom, and now longs to go out, but is not yet able. Hence it is that the Hebrew people, delivered from the bondage of Egypt, when they saw the pillar of cloud as God spoke, each one stood in the door of his own tabernacle and worshipped (Exod. XXXIII, 10). Of whom it is said a little above:

«When Moses went out to the tabernacle, all the people rose up, and each one stood in the door of his own tent» (Ibid. 8). For there we stand, where we fix the eye of our mind. Whence Elijah says: «The Lord liveth, in whose sight I stand» (3 Kings XVII, 1). There assuredly he stood, where he had fixed his heart. But what is it that the people beheld the pillar of cloud, and stood and worshipped in the doors of their tent, unless that the human mind beholds, however dimly and as in a riddle, those things above and heavenly, already goes forth from the enclosures of its bodily habitation through uplifted thought, and humbly adores Him whose substance, though it cannot see, it yet already marvels at His power through the illumination of the Spirit?

And when Moses enters the tabernacle, the people behold his back, and stand at the doors of their tents; because when any holy preacher speaks lofty things concerning God, he already, in whatever measure, enters the tabernacle of the habitation on high. Of whose preaching the weaker ones, even if they cannot fully weigh its power, nevertheless behold it as it were from behind, since they follow through the understanding the last things which prevail over them. But even in those least things which they are able to grasp, they now, as it were, go out from their own tents and stand in the doors; because they strive both to leave the dwellings of the flesh and to advance toward those joys of eternal life which they hear of. Hence it is also that Elijah, when he heard the voice of the Lord speaking with him (3 Kings XIX, 9),

is described as having stood in the door of his cave, and to have veiled his face (v. 13); because when the voice of heavenly understanding comes into the mind through the grace of contemplation, the whole man is now not within the cave, since the care of the flesh no longer possesses the soul, but he stands in the door, because he ponders how to go out from the straits of mortality. But now, he who stands in the door of the cave and receives the words of God in the ear of his heart, it is necessary that he veil his face; because while through supernal grace we are led to understand higher things, the more subtly we are lifted up, so much the more must we ever, through humility, press ourselves down in our own understanding, lest we should try «to be more wise than it behooveth to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety» (Rom. XII, 3);

lest, while we too curiously examine invisible things, we go astray; lest we seek in that incorporeal nature something of a corporeal image. For to bend the ear and to cover the face is to hear the voice of the inner Substance through the mind, and yet to turn the eye of the heart away from every corporeal appearance, lest the mind fashion for itself anything corporeal in that Substance which is everywhere whole and everywhere uncircumscribed. We therefore, most dear brethren, who now through the death and resurrection of our Redeemer, and His ascension to the heavens, love the eternal joys; who know that His angels, our fellow-citizens, appeared outwardly in testimony of His divinity, let us long for the King, let us desire

the fellow-citizens whom we have come to know, and, standing in this building of holy Church, let us hold our eyes upon the gate; let us give the back of our mind to this corruption of temporal life, let us direct the face of our heart toward the freedom of the heavenly homeland. But behold, there are still many things that press upon us from the care of corruptible life. Since therefore we cannot perfectly go out, let us at least stand in the door of our cave, being destined at some time to go out prosperously through the grace of our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.