Moralia in Job 229

Verse 23. — 'To a man whose way is hidden, and whom God hath surrounded with darkness.' 11. He who acts rightly knows not whether he will persevere. — For his way is hidden to a man, because although he already considers in what quality of life he is, yet he still knows not to what end he tends. Although he already longs for the things above, although he seeks these with full desires, yet he still knows not whether he may abide in those same desires. For, forsaking sins, we tend toward righteousness; and whence we came, we know; but whither we may arrive, we know not. What we were yesterday, we know; but what it may befall us to be tomorrow, we know not. His way, then, is hidden to a man, because he so sets the foot of his work that yet he cannot foresee the issue of its consummation.

12. He knows not whether that which he thinks right, God may not condemn. He is surrounded with darkness. — But there is also another hiddenness of our way; because sometimes those very things which we believe ourselves to do rightly, whether in the stern examination of the Judge they be right, we know not. For often, as we said also far above, our work is a cause of damnation, and is thought to be an advance of virtue. Often, from that very source whence the Judge is believed to be appeased, He is provoked, though placid, to wrath; Solomon attesting, who says: 'There is a way which seemeth right to a man; but the ends thereof lead to death' (Prov. 14:12).

Whence holy men, when they overcome evils, dread even their own well-done deeds, lest, when they long to do good things, they be deceived by the appearance of the action, lest a pestilent decay of putrefaction lie hidden under the fair show of good colour. For they know that, still weighed down by the burden of corruption, they know not how subtly to judge good things; and when they bring before their eyes the rule of the final examination, they sometimes fear these very things in themselves, even those which they approve. And with their whole mind they indeed desire the inward things, yet, trembling at the uncertainty of their works, they know not whither they walk. Whence, well, after it was said: 'Why is light given to him that is in misery?' there is added: 'To a man whose way is hidden.' As if it were said:

Why does he receive the success of this life, who knows not under what estimation of the Judge is the journey of his work? But well is it subjoined: 'And God hath surrounded him with darkness.' For man is surrounded with darkness; because although he glows with heavenly desire, what is disposed within concerning himself, he knows not. And he greatly fears lest something meet him in the judgement which now, in the desire of good fervour, lies hidden from him concerning himself. Man is surrounded with darkness, because he is pressed by the gloom of his own ignorance. Or is he not surrounded with darkness, who for the most part does not remember the past, does not discover the future, scarcely knows the present? A certain wise man had seen himself surrounded with darkness, when he said: 'The things that are in sight we find with labour;

and the things that are in the heavens, who shall search out?' (Wisd. 9:16). With these shadows the Prophet saw himself surrounded, when he could not penetrate the inward parts of the innermost disposition, saying: 'He hath made darkness his hiding-place' (Ps. 17:12). For our Author, because to us cast down into this exile He took away the light of His vision, hid Himself from our eyes as it were in the hiding-place of darkness. 13. Hence there is matter for weeping to the saints. — Which shadows of our blindness, when we studiously behold, we provoke the mind to lamentations. For a man weeps for the blindness which he suffers outwardly, if he humbly remembers that in the inward parts he is deprived of light. And when he regards the darkness with which he is surrounded, he afflicts himself with an ardent desire of the inmost splendour;

and with every effort of intention he shakes himself, and, repulsed, seeks the supernal light which, when created, he forsook. Whence it comes to pass for the most part, that in those very pious weepings that brightness of inward joy breaks forth; and the mind, which before had lain blind in torpor, being quickened by sighs, grows strong unto the beholding of the inmost radiance. Whence, well, it follows: