Moralia in Job 210

Verse 9.— Let the stars be darkened with its gloom. 44. Thus even those who are stars are obscured by some gloom.— For the stars are darkened by the gloom of this night, when even those who now shine with great virtues still endure something struggling against them from the obscurity of fault, so that they may both shine with a great brightness of life, and yet still, unwilling, drag the remnants of the night. Which is done for this end, as has been said, that the mind advancing to the virtue of its own righteousness may be better strengthened by weakness; and thence may more truly shine in good things, whence even against its will small blameworthy things humbly obscure it.

Whence also well, when, the land of promise having been received, it was allotted with the people of Israel to the tribe of Ephraim, the gentile Canaanite people is said not to have been slain, but made tributary, as it is written: 'The Canaanite dwelt tributary in the midst of Ephraim' (Joshua 16:10). For what does the Canaanite, namely the gentile people, signify but vice? And often we enter the land of promise with great virtues, because we are strengthened by an inmost hope concerning eternity. But while amid sublime deeds we retain certain small vices, we grant, as it were, the Canaanite to live in our land.

Yet it is made tributary, because this very vice, which we cannot subdue, we humbly turn back to the use of our own profit; so that thereby the mind, even in the highest things, may feel itself of base worth, in that by its own strength it does not vanquish even the small things which it desires. Whence again it is well written: 'These are the nations which the Lord left, that by them He might instruct Israel' (Judges 3:1). For to this end certain of our least vices are retained, that our intention may ever exercise itself solicitous in the combat; and that it may not be proud of victory, in that it beholds living within itself enemies by whom it still fears to be vanquished.

Israel, then, is instructed while the nations are spared, when in certain very small vices the exaltation of our virtue is checked, and while small things resist us it learns that of itself it does not subdue the greater. 45. No one in this life, however he may shine with holiness, is able to see God as He is. Yet this that is said, 'Let the stars be darkened with His mist,' can also be understood in another way. For that night, namely the consent to sin, which has been propagated to us by the transgression of our first parent, has struck the eye of our mind with such great obscurity that in the exile of this life, weighed down by the darkness of its own blindness, however powerfully it may strain toward the light of eternity, it cannot penetrate it.

For after the punishment of the condemned, we are born as sinners, and we come to this life with the desert of our own death; and when we lift the gaze of our mind toward the ray of the light on high, we are darkened by the very obscurity of our own weakness. And indeed many in this weakness of the flesh have been strengthened by such great virtue that they could shine upon the world like stars. Many, amid the darkness of the present life, while they display in themselves examples of higher things, shine down upon us from above after the manner of the stars; but with however great a flashing of works they blaze, with however great a fire of compunction they kindle themselves, it is nevertheless certain that, while they are still weighed down by corruptible flesh, they can by no means see the eternal light as it is. Let him therefore say: 'Let the stars be darkened with His mist';

that is, even they in their contemplation still feel the darkness of the ancient night, they of whom it is nevertheless certain that they already spread abroad the rays of their virtues upon the human race amid the mist of this life; for although in mind they already leap up to the highest things, yet they are still weighed down in the lowest by the burden of the first sin. Hence it comes about that outwardly indeed they offer examples of light like stars, yet inwardly, pressed by the mist of night, they do not ascend to the certainty of a fixed vision. But often the mind is so kindled that, although it is set in the flesh, it is nevertheless caught up into God, all carnal thought being subdued; yet it does not behold God as He is, because, as has been said, the weight of the first condemnation presses this mind down in corruptible flesh.

Often it desires to be absorbed just as it is, so that, if it could be done, it might attain the eternal life without the intervention of bodily death. Hence Paul, when he ardently sought the inner light, yet nonetheless in some way dreaded the losses of the outward death, said: 'While we are in this dwelling, we groan being burdened, in that we would not be unclothed, but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life' (2 Cor. 5:4). Holy men, therefore, long to see the true morning, and, if it be granted, they wish to attain even with the body that secret place of the inmost light.

But with however great an ardor of intention they leap up, the ancient night still weighs upon them; and the just Judge presses the eyes of this corruptible flesh—eyes which the cunning enemy opened to concupiscence—away from the sight of the inner brightness. Hence too it is fittingly added.