Moralia in Job 1439 part 2/2

For by the breadth of the threshold and the length of the gate we have said the old and new testament are signified. But at the last it is added that one cubit is the boundary on both sides, because, namely, both the old testament announced to us one Mediator of God and men, and the new testament announces to us that same One as about to come in eternal brightness, whom we have already known to have been incarnate for us. One cubit, therefore, is the boundary of both; because He whom the law foretold appeared in the flesh, and the same One of whom now the New Testament speaks will appear in the glory of His majesty. And then shall be the boundary of both, when, seen in the power of His divinity, He shall have fulfilled all things that have been foretold. For it is written:

Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to everyone that believes (Rom. X, 4). The end, namely, not that which consumes, but that which perfects. For then He perfected the law, when, as the law had foretold, He appeared incarnate. But the New Testament still speaks much concerning His judgment, still relates much concerning His kingdom, which we do not yet see fulfilled. Behold, daily the Gospel is read, the life to come is preached. Then, therefore, shall also be the end of the new testament, when the Lord shall have fulfilled the things which He promised concerning Himself. 15. But the new testament shall be ended, because it shall be brought to perfection. For when He of whom it speaks shall have been seen, the words of that same testament shall cease. Whence also it is said to holy Church, awaiting the day of true light as it were the springtime, in the voice of the Bridegroom:

Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come. For now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers have appeared in the land (Cant. II, 10, 11). For whether holy Church, or each single elect soul, is to the heavenly Bridegroom a love through affection, a dove through the spirit, a beautiful one through beauty of conduct. And when she is now led out from the corruption of the flesh, for her without doubt the winter passes, because the numbness of the present life departs. The rain too is over and gone, because when she is led out to contemplate almighty God in His own substance, the drops of words will no longer be needed, that the rain of preaching should be poured out. For what she was less able to hear, she shall see more fully.

Then the flowers appear in the land, because when the soul has begun to foretaste certain first beginnings of the sweetness of the life of eternal blessedness, it as it were smells them in flowers as it goes out, which after it has gone forth it shall have more abundantly in fruit. Whence also it is there added: The time of pruning has come (Ibid., II, 12). For in pruning the barren branches are cut away, that those which prevail may bear fruit more abundantly. The time of our pruning, therefore, comes then, when we forsake the unfruitful and harmful corruption of the flesh, that we may be able to attain to the fruit of the soul. Which fruit shall be for us most abundant—the vision of the One. One cubit, therefore, is the boundary on both sides, because there is one who said: I am alone until I pass (Psal. CXL, 10).

Who alone with the Father and the Holy Spirit presides in heaven, like a lone sparrow on the building (Psal. CI, 8). Even as He fulfilled the law through the mystery of the incarnation and of His perfect humanity, so He is about to fulfil the promises of the new testament through the shown glory of His brightness. 16. This one cubit for us the measure also of the ark declared. For the ark, which was commanded to be made three hundred cubits in length, sixty in breadth, and thirty in height (Gen. VI, 15), was consummated in one cubit. For what is figured by the ark, if not holy Church, which is ample below, narrow above?

Which is gathered from three hundred, and sixty, and thirty cubits to one cubit, because from that breadth which holy Church has in her members still weak, being somewhat narrowed, and advancing into the height, she tends toward one. For the very reason demands that we believe that in that breadth of the ark all the beasts, all the quadrupeds and reptiles were in the lower parts, but men and birds surely in the upper. For toward the upper part there was a window in the side, from which the man sent forth a raven and a dove, that he might know whether the waters of the flood had now passed. And because that same ark was consummated in one cubit, men and birds were near the one cubit.

Rightly, therefore, by the ark the universal Church is signified, which is still broad in her many carnal ones, narrow in her few spiritual ones. And because she is gathered to the one Man who is without sin, she is as it were consummated in one cubit. 17. For we see many within the bosom of that same holy Church puffed up in pride, dissolved in the pleasure of the flesh, gaping after the acquisition of earthly things, crossing the seas at the command of avarice, given over to wrath, occupied with quarrels, harming the neighbours whom they overpower. But because holy Church still tolerates them that they may be converted, they tarry as it were like beasts down below in the breadth of the ark.

We see others already not seeking what belongs to another, bearing with equanimity injury inflicted upon them, being content with their own goods, living humbly. But because these are already few, the ark is narrowed. But we behold still others even forsaking their possessions, giving no zeal to earthly things, loving their enemies, taming the flesh from all pleasures, restraining all impulses under the judgment of reason, being lifted up by the wing of contemplation through heavenly desire. But because such as these are very rare, now the ark is drawn toward the one cubit, where men and birds are contained. Yet let it be sought whether anyone among them can be without sin, and no one is found. Who, then, is a man without sin, except He who was not conceived in sins?

In one cubit, therefore, the ark is brought to completion, because there is one Author and Redeemer of holy Church who is without sin, toward whom and through whom all advance who have come to know that they are sinners. Let it be said, then, concerning the threshold and the gate: 'And one cubit, with rows on either side,' because when the one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, shall appear in his majesty, he will fulfill all things of both Testaments that were foretold and promised. If, however, the text here mentions both the margin and the chambers, this too is not out of keeping with this interpretation, because when the majesty of our Redeemer shall have been shown to us, faith comes to an end, once man has already begun to see what he believed.

And the chambers reach their end, because the hearts of the faithful, incomparably far beyond what they now are, are made perfect in his love. The one cubit, therefore, is the end on either side, because the vision of the one Lord and Savior brings faith to its close in his elect and perfects charity. It is worth considering who we are who hand on these things. Surely we come from peasants; surely our forefathers were worshippers of wood and stone. Whence, then, comes this to us, that we should search out mysteries of the prophet Ezekiel so profound that the Hebrews do not know them to this day? Let us therefore give thanks to the One who fulfilled in deed all that was written of him in the sacred word, so that the things which, when heard, could not be understood, were laid open when they were seen.

For there his incarnation is contained, there his passion, there his death, there his resurrection, there his ascension. But which of us would have believed these things when heard, had he not come to know them as accomplished? The sealed book, therefore, as is set forth in John's Apocalypse, which no one was able to open and read, the Lion of the tribe of Judah opened, because he laid open to us all his mysteries in his passion and resurrection. And by the very fact that he endured the evils of our weakness, he showed us the good things of his power and glory. For he was made flesh, that he might make us spiritual; he graciously bowed down, that he might raise us up; he went forth, that he might bring us in; he appeared visible, that he might show forth things invisible; he endured scourgings, that he might heal us.

He bore reproaches and mockeries, that he might set us free from eternal reproach; he died, that he might give us life. Let us therefore give thanks to him who gives life, and who died, and who gives life all the more because he died. Hence Isaiah, contemplating our salvation and his passion, rightly said: 'That he may do his work, his work is strange to him; that he may accomplish his work, his work is alien to him.' For the work of God is to gather the souls which he created, and to call them back to the joys of eternal light. But to be scourged and smeared with spittle, to be crucified, to die and to be buried—this is not, in his own substance, the work of God, but the work of sinful man, who by sin merited all these things.

But he himself bore our sins in his body upon the tree; and he who in his own nature remains ever incomprehensible, in our nature deigned to be comprehended and scourged, because unless he had taken upon himself the things belonging to our weakness, he would never have raised us up to the power of his strength. 'That he may do his work, his work is strange to him; and that he may accomplish his work, his work is alien to him,' because God, made incarnate, in order to gather us to his own righteousness, deigned to be beaten for us as though he were a sinful man.

And he did a strange work in order to do his own proper work, because through this—that in his weakness he bore our evils—he led us who are his creatures to the glory of his strength; in which he lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.