Moralia in Job 331

Verse 14. He who takes away mercy from his friend, forsakes the fear of the Lord. 28. What the love of God and the love of neighbor mutually furnish to each other. — Whom in this place does the name of friend designate, save any neighbor, who is faithfully joined to us in this, that, having now received a good work from us, he truly helps us to obtain hereafter the eternal homeland? But because there are two precepts of charity, namely the love of God and of neighbor, through the love of God the love of neighbor is begotten, and through the love of neighbor the love of God is nourished. For he who neglects to love God, assuredly knows not how to love his neighbor; and then do we more fully advance in the love of God, if first, in the bosom of that same love, we are suckled by charity toward our neighbor.

For because the love of God generates the love of neighbor, the Lord, being about to say through the Law, You shall love your neighbor (Deut. vi, 5; x, 12), first premised, saying: You shall love the Lord your God (Matt. xxii, 37, 39): namely, that first in the soil of our breast He might fix the root of His love, so that thereafter through the branches fraternal love might sprout forth. And again, because the love of God grows together out of the love of neighbor, John testifies, saying: He who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see (1 John iv, 20)? Yet this divine love is born through fear, but by growing is transformed into affection. 29. Love of neighbor is proved in his tribulations. How great is the iniquity of one who despises a friend in adversity.

But often almighty God, that it may be made known how far each one is from His charity and from that of his neighbor, or how far he has advanced in it, dispensing all things in wondrous order, depresses some with scourges, supports others with successes. And when He temporally deserts certain ones, He shows in the hearts of certain others what evil lies hidden. For very often those very persons persecute us when we are wretched, who cultivated us beyond comparison when we were happy. For when someone placed in prosperity is loved, it is very uncertain whether prosperity or the person is loved. But the loss of felicity interrogates the force of love. Whence a certain wise man well says: A friend is not recognized in good things, and an enemy is not hidden in evil things (Ecclus. xii, 8).

For prosperity does not reveal the friend, nor does adversity conceal the enemy; for the one is often read of out of reverence for our prosperity, while the other is laid bare by his confidence born of our adversity. Let the just man, therefore, set amid scourges, say: 'He who withdraws mercy from his friend forsakes the fear of the Lord' (Job 6:14). For assuredly he who despises his neighbor in adversity is plainly convicted of not having loved him in prosperity. And since Almighty God strikes some to this end, that He may both instruct the stricken and afford to the unstricken an occasion for good works, whoever despises the stricken thrusts from himself an occasion of virtue.

And he raises himself the more wickedly against his Maker, in that he acknowledges Him neither as loving in his own welfare, nor as just in another's wound. But it must be observed that blessed Job so speaks of his own affairs that through him the life of the whole elect people is also signified. For since he is a member of that same people, when he tells what he himself suffers, he likewise proclaims what that people endures, saying: