Moralia in Job 158

Verse 13. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him; for they saw that his grief was very great. Whether it was for seven continuous days and nights, or with intervals, that the friends sat with Job, is uncertain. Whether they sat with the afflicted Job for seven continuous days and seven nights, or whether for seven days and as many nights the constancy of frequent visitation clung to him, we do not know. For we are often said to do some matter for so many days, although we are not continuously free for it on those same days. Often, moreover, Sacred Scripture is wont to put the whole for the part, as also the part for the whole. For it speaks of the part for the whole, as Jacob, describing his household, says:

Jacob entered Egypt with seventy souls (Gen. 46:27). Which, of course, when it mentions souls, it is certain that it comprehends also the bodies of those entering. Again, it intimates the whole for the part, as at the tomb Mary complains, saying: 'They have taken away the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him' (John 20:2). For she had come to seek only the body of the Lord, and she laments the Lord as it were wholly taken away at once. Whether, then, in this place too the whole is put for the part, is uncertain. Let the discourse be neither hasty, nor, after due silence, indiscreet. But nevertheless this, that they were long silent, and were at some point reproved for speaking, is not to be passed over negligently.

For there are some who both begin to speak precipitately, and pursue what they have begun the more unbridledly. And there are some who indeed begin to speak slowly, but once having begun, know not how to have measure in speaking. The friends of blessed Job, therefore, seeing his grief, were long silent; but beginning late, they spoke indiscreetly, because they were unwilling to spare the sorrowing one. They held their tongue, lest it should begin too hastily; but once beginning, they by no means moderated it, lest it should from consolation unbridle itself even to insults. And with good intention indeed they had come to console; but this, which their devout mind offered pure to God, precipitate speech vitiated. For it is written:

If you offer rightly, but do not rightly divide, you have sinned (Gen. 4:7, according to the LXX). For it is rightly offered, when something is done with right intention. But it is not rightly divided, if that which is done be not also subtly discerned. For to divide rightly what is offered is carefully to weigh all our good pursuits by discernment. And whoever neglects to do this, even offering rightly, sins. It must be provided that what we begin with right zeal, we carry through to a right end. Often, therefore, even what we do with good zeal, while we carelessly neglect to discern it, by what end it is to be judged we know not; and sometimes that becomes the guilt of a crime, which is thought to be the cause of virtue.

But whoever considers the deeds of the friends of blessed Job is not ignorant with how devout an intention they had come to him. For let us weigh of how great a charity it was to have come together in concord to the afflicted man; how great a virtue of long-suffering it was to have kept silent with the afflicted for seven days and nights; what humility, to have sat on the ground for so many days and nights; what compassion, to have sprinkled their heads with dust. But nevertheless, beginning to speak, from where they esteemed they would acquire the reward of recompense, thence it befell them to find the guilt of reproof, because incautious persons often come to the end of sin even in that which is begun solely for the zeal of reward. Behold, by precipitate speech they lost the good which they had purchased with so great a labor.

And unless divine grace had commanded them to offer a sacrifice for their guilt, they could justly have been punished by the Lord in that very thing whereby they marvelously esteemed themselves to please the Lord. Thence they displease the Judge, whence, as if in defense of the Judge, they please themselves through unbridledness. But we say these things for this reason: that we may recall to the memory of readers, so that each may carefully consider with how great animadversion the Lord punishes those things which are perpetrated with evil desire, if He chastises with such rebuke things begun with good zeal, but mingled with the negligence of indiscretion. Who would not believe that he had accomplished a cause for reward, if he either said anything against his neighbor in defense of God, or indeed had kept silent for seven days and nights out of grief for his neighbor?

And yet the friends of blessed Job, in doing these things, arrived at fault by their laboring, because they indeed knew the good of consolation which they were performing; but with how great a balance of discretion it was to be performed, they knew not. Whence it is necessary that we should not only regard what we do, but also with how great discretion we carry it through. First indeed, lest we do evil things in any way, and afterward lest we do good things incautiously. To which good things, carefully to be performed, the prophet admonishes us, saying: 'Cursed be the man who does the work of the Lord negligently' (Jer. 48:10).

But let these things profit to this end: that before the subtle and incomprehensible examination of the terrible Judge, we should fear not only the evil things which we have committed, but even those very things, if there be any well done in us; because often in His judgment that is found to be a fault which before the judgment is thought a virtue; and whence the devout reward of the work is expected, thence follows the punishment of just retribution. Allegorical sense. How great is the conjunction of Christ and the Church. These things, briefly treated according to history, we have run through; now let us turn our words to the mystery of the allegories.

But because at the beginning of this work, while we were treating of the unity of the Head and the body, we premised with careful intention how great is the joining of charity in them—since indeed the Lord still suffers many things through the body, which we are, and already His body, that is, the Church, glories in heaven concerning its Head, namely the Lord—so now the passions of that same Head are to be expressed, that it may be shown how many things He also endures in His body. For if our torments did not touch our Head, He would by no means cry out even from heaven to His persecutor on behalf of the afflicted members: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' (Acts 9:4). If our torments were not His pains, Paul, converted and afflicted, would by no means say:

I fill up in my flesh those things which are lacking of the sufferings of Christ (Col. 1:24). And yet, already exalted by the resurrection of His Head, he says: 'Who has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places' (Eph. 2:6). Truly, upon earth the torments of persecutions had constrained this man; but, pressed by the weights of his sufferings, behold, he already sat in heaven through the glory of the Head. Because, therefore, we have known the Head and the body to be united in all things, we so begin from the smiting of the Head, that nevertheless we may subsequently come to the scourges of the body.

But this—that on a certain day Satan is said to have stood before the Lord, that he is questioned whence he comes, that blessed Job is set forth with great praises of the Creator—because we have already often discussed it, we avoid repeating. For if the mind is long involved in matters already discussed, it is hindered from arriving at the undiscussed. There, therefore, we now place the beginning of the allegory, where, after words often repeated, we know something new to be added. And so it says: