Moralia in Job 219

Verse 18.—And those once bound together, without vexation. 68. The hard bonds by which even the righteous are here bound.—For although no tumult of carnal desires possesses the righteous, yet in this life, placed under it, the vexation of their corruption binds them with hard bonds. For it is written: The body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the sense that ponders many things (Wis. 9:15). By this very thing, therefore, that they are still mortal, they are weighed down by the burden of their corruption, and, bound fast by vexation, they are bound, because they do not yet rise up into that liberty of incorruptible life. For they bear one thing from the mind, another from the body, and daily sweat against themselves in inward combat.

Are they not bound by a hard bond of vexation, whose mind, indeed, is dissolved without toil into ignorance, and is not instructed except with the endeavour of toil? It is raised up by constraint; it lies down willingly; from lowest things it is scarcely lifted, and yet, once lifted, it presently slips down. Vanquishing itself laboriously, it beholds supernal things; but, beaten back, it flees the light which had shone upon it. Are they not bound by a hard bond of vexation, whom, when the kindled spirit draws with full desire to the bosom of inmost peace, the flesh, with fervent combat, disturbs? Which flesh, even if it no longer meets them face to face like a battle-line drawn up in opposition, yet still, as it were captive, mutters from the back of the mind:

and, although fearfully, yet with a base din, it defiles in the heart the appearance of fair quiet. The elect, therefore, although they mightily overcome all things, when they desire the security of inward peace, it is a grievous vexation to them still to have that which they must vanquish. Who, these things excepted, endure also those bonds which grievous outward necessity binds fast. For to hunger, to thirst, to grow weary, are bonds of corruption: which, indeed, cannot be loosed, save when our mortality is changed into that glory of immortality. For we fill the body with refreshments, lest, wasted away, it fail; we waste it by abstinence, lest, filled, it press us down. We enliven it with movements, lest by the rust of immobility it perish;

but by settling it down with resting, we more quickly stop it, lest by its very enlivening it succumb. We cover it with the helps of garments, lest cold destroy it, and we throw off the helps we sought, lest heat scorch it. Meeting so many diversities, therefore, what do we do but serve corruptibility, that at least the manifold nature of the service we expend may sustain the body which the anxiety of infirm mutability weighs down? Whence it is well said through Paul: For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected it in hope: because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God (Rom. 8:20-21).

For the creature is subjected to vanity not willingly, because man, who willingly deserted the state of his inborn constancy, being pressed by the weight of just mortality, unwillingly serves the corruption of his own mutability. But this creature is then rescued from the servitude of corruption, when it is raised up, incorrupt by rising again, to the glory of the sons of God. Here, therefore, the elect are bound by vexation, because they are still pressed down by the punishment of their corruption. But when we are stripped of the corruptible flesh, we are, as it were, released from those bonds of vexation by which we are now bound fast. For we already desire to be presented to God, but are still hindered by the obligation of the mortal body. Rightly, therefore, are we called bound, because we do not yet have free passage of our desire toward God.

Whence Paul, desiring things eternal, but yet still bearing the burden of his own corruption, cries out as one bound: I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). For he would not seek to be dissolved, unless without doubt he saw himself bound. But these bonds, because he had beheld that they were most certainly to be broken in the resurrection, the Prophet already rejoiced over as though broken, when he said: Thou hast burst my bonds; to Thee will I sacrifice a victim of praise (Ps. 115:7). Epilogue.—Let the holy man therefore contemplate that the inward light receives converted sinners, and say: There the wicked have ceased from tumult. Let him contemplate that holy men, wearied by the exercise of desire, rest more loftily in that inmost bosom, and say:

And there the weary in strength have rested. Let him contemplate that all, together loosed from the bonds of their corruption, come incorrupt to those joys of liberty, and say: And those once bound together, without vexation. Well, moreover, is it said, Once bound; because while that ever-present gladness is beheld, all that shall be and flows away is seen as though already past. For when the end of things is regarded, all that passes is weighed as though it had already been. But let him relate what all these, whom the inward quiet shall receive thither, have meanwhile done here. There follows: