Moralia in Job 175

Ver. 8.—Because he scraped the corrupt matter with a potsherd. 58. That to scrape corrupt matter with a potsherd is to purge sin by judging oneself and contemplating one's own frailty.—For what is understood by the potsherd, save the vigor of strictness? What by the corrupt matter, save the flux of unlawful thought? Being smitten, therefore, we scrape the corrupt matter with the potsherd, when after the pollution of an unlawful thought we cleanse ourselves by judging ourselves harshly. The potsherd can also be understood as the frailty of our mortality. To cleanse the corrupt matter with a potsherd, therefore, is to weigh the course and frailty of our mortality, and to wipe away the rottenness of wretched delight. For when a man considers hard how quickly the flesh returns to dust, he speedily overcomes that which within him foully assails him from the flesh.

When therefore a thought flows into the mind from wicked temptation, corrupt matter as it were runs down from a wound. But the corrupt matter is more quickly wiped away, if in our consideration frailty be held as it were like a potsherd in the hand. 59. Wicked thoughts are not to be despised.—For neither are those things to be lightly esteemed which, although they do not drag on even to the deed, nevertheless dwell unlawfully in the mind. Hence it is that our Redeemer had come to scrape corrupt matter as it were from wounds, when He said: Ye have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall look upon a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:27).

The corrupt matter, then, is wiped away when the fault is cut off not only from the deed but also from the thought. Hence it is that Gideon, when he was threshing out the grain from the chaff, saw an angel, at whose command he straightway cooked a kid, which he set upon a rock, and poured out the broth of the flesh over it; and the angel touched these with a staff, and fire, going forth from the rock, consumed them (Judges 6:11, 12, 19). For what is it to beat the grain with a rod, save by the rectitude of judgment to separate the grains of virtues from the chaff of vices? But to those doing these things the angel appears, because the Lord announces inward things the more, the more diligently men purge themselves from outward things.

He commands the kid to be slain—that is, every appetite of our flesh to be immolated—and the flesh to be placed upon the rock, and the broth of the flesh to be poured over it. Whom else does the rock signify, save Him of whom it is said through Paul: And the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4)? We place the flesh upon the rock, then, when we crucify our body in imitation of Christ. And he pours the broth of the flesh over it who, in conversation after Christ, empties from himself even the carnal thoughts themselves. For as it were the broth is poured out from the liquefied flesh onto the rock, when the mind is emptied even of the flux of carnal thoughts. Yet these the angel straightway touches with a staff, because the power of divine help by no means abandons our intention.

But fire goes forth from the rock and consumes the broth and the flesh, because the Spirit breathed forth from the Redeemer so kindles our heart with the flame of compunction that it burns up whatever unlawful thing of deed and of thought is in it. That, then, which there is to pour the broth onto the rock, is here to cleanse the corrupt matter with a potsherd. For a perfect mind watches skillfully, that it may not only refuse to do perverse things, but may also wipe away all that within it foully melts into thoughts. [Old div. XXIII.] But often from the very victory war arises, so that when an unclean thought is conquered, the mind of the victor is beaten by elation. Thus, therefore, the mind must be raised up through purity, so that nevertheless it ought anxiously to be laid low in humility. [Rev. XXVIII.]

Hence too, when it was said of the holy man, He scraped the corrupt matter with a potsherd, there is immediately and fittingly added: