Moralia in Job 353

Verses 2,3: As a servant longs for the shade, and as a hireling waits for the end of his work, so I also have had empty months, and have numbered wearisome nights unto myself. He longs for eternal rest. He is a servant, not free, so long as he is subject to corruption. For to long for the shade is, for a servant, after the heat of temptation and the sweat of work, to seek the rest of eternal refreshment. For this shade that servant had longed for who said: My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God (Ps. 42:2)? And again: Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged (Ps. 120:5).

He, as it were fleeing the fierce heat from labour, and seeking a covering of refreshment to obtain rest, says again: I will enter into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God (Ps. 42:5). This shade Paul panted to lay hold of, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). To this shade, out of the already perfected desire, had they come who said: We who have borne the burden of the day and the heat (Matt. 20:12). And well is he who is said to long for the shade called a servant, because each of the elect, so long as he is bound by the condition of infirmity, is held as it were under the anxiety of heat, beneath the yoke of the dominating corruption.

He indeed, when he has been stripped of corruption, then becomes known to himself as free and tranquil. Whence rightly also it is said through Paul: The creature itself shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God (Rom. 8:21). For now the penalty of corruption weighs down the elect, but then the glory of incorruption shall exalt them; and as much as, in respect of the burdens of present necessity, nothing of liberty is now shown in the sons of God, so much, in respect of the glory of the liberty to follow, then nothing of servitude shall appear in the servants of God.

The creature therefore, stripped of the servitude of corruption and having received the dignity of liberty, is turned into the glory of the sons of God, because, united to God through the Spirit, it is declared to have as it were passed beyond and subjugated this very thing that it is a creature. But he who still longs for the shade is a servant, because so long as he endures the heat of temptations, he carries the yoke of a wretched condition. Where fitly is subjoined: And as a hireling waits for the end of his work. The labour of the elect is lightened by regard for the wages. For the hireling, when he beholds the works to be done, straightway consigns his mind by reason of the length and weight of the labour;

but when he recalls his flagging spirit to consider the reward of the work, he presently restores the vigour of his mind to the exercise of labour, and what he weighs as heavy from the work, he esteems light from the remuneration. Thus, thus, each of the elect, when they suffer the adversities of this world, when they bear the affronts to their honour, the losses of goods, the torments of the body, weigh as heavy those things by which they are exercised; but when they direct the eyes of the mind to the consideration of the eternal homeland, from the comparison of the reward they find how light is that which they suffer. For what is shown to be utterly unbearable by pain is lightened by provident consideration through the remuneration.

Hence it is that Paul is always raised up stronger than himself against adversities, because he too, like a hireling, waits for the end of his work. For he esteems as heavy what he endures, but weighs this as light through the consideration of the reward. He himself indeed shows how heavy is what he suffers (2 Cor. 11:23), who testifies that he was in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often; who from the Jews five times received forty stripes save one, who was thrice beaten with rods, once stoned, thrice suffered shipwreck, was a night and a day in the deep of the sea; who bore perils of rivers, of robbers, from his own race, from the Gentiles, in the city, in the wilderness, in the sea, among false brethren;

who laboured in toil and hardship, in many fastings, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness; who without endured fightings, within fears; who asserts himself burdened beyond his strength, saying: We were pressed out of measure, above strength, so that we were weary even of life (2 Cor. 1:8). But how he wipes away the sweats of so great a labour with the towel of remuneration, he himself announces, saying: The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). And so, like a hireling, he waits for the end of his work who, while he considers the advancement of remuneration, esteems as worthless that at which he labours almost to fainting. And fitly is subjoined:

So I also have had empty months, and have numbered wearisome nights unto myself. The elect have empty months and wearisome nights, suffering want and adversities, and not yet holding the reward. For the elect serve the Founder of all things, and are often straitened by lack of things; through love they cleave to God, and yet lack the supports of the present life. Those therefore who by their actions do not seek present things lead months empty of the world's gains. They also bear wearisome nights, because they carry the darknesses of adversities not only unto want, but often even unto the torment of the body. For to endure contempt and destitution is not wearisome to good minds;

but when adversity is turned even unto the affliction of the flesh, then without doubt labour is felt through pain. It can also not inconveniently be understood that every holy man leads empty months like a hireling, because he already endures the labour, but does not yet hold the reward; this he bears, that he awaits. But he numbers wearisome nights, because he heaps up upon himself the adversities of the present time by exercising himself in virtues. For if he does not desire to advance in mind, perhaps he feels less the harsh things that are of the world. The Church has empty months in her infirm members, wearisome nights in her strong ones. Labour that is vain for the world's sake is discerned by its end.

Yet if this sentence be applied to the voice of holy Church, its meaning is traced out a little more subtly. For she has empty months, who in her infirm members sustains earthly actions flowing away without the reward of life. She numbers wearisome nights, who in her strong members carries manifold tribulations. For in this life some things are wearisome, some empty, some indeed empty and wearisome at once. To be exercised by the tribulations of the present life through the love of the Founder is indeed wearisome, but it is not empty. But to be dissolved in the pleasures of the world through love of the world is indeed empty, but not wearisome.

But to endure some adversities through love of that same world is at once both empty and wearisome, because the mind is both afflicted by adversity, and not filled with the reward of remuneration. And so among these, holy Church leads empty months for those who, already placed within her, still flow away in pleasures and are therefore not enriched by the fruit of good work, because she expends the times of life without the gift of retribution. But for those who, given over to eternal desires, suffer the adversities of this world, she numbers wearisome nights, because she carries the darknesses of tribulations as it were in the gloom of the present life.

But among those who both love the passing world and yet are wearied by its contrariety, she endures at once empty months and wearisome nights, because no following retribution remunerates their life, and present tribulation straitens it. But rightly she declares that she has, not days, but empty months among them. For by the name of months is signified the collection and sum of days. By a day therefore each single action is expressed, but by months the end of actions is intimated. And often, when we do something in this world, suspended by the intent eagerness of hope, we do not reckon empty this very thing that we do; but after we have come to the term of the actions, not obtaining what we desire, we grieve that we have laboured in vain.

Not only days therefore, but also empty months do we lead, when we weigh that we have laboured without fruit in earthly actions, not from the beginning of the actions, but from their end. For when adversity follows our labours, the months of our life are convicted as it were empty, because from the completion of the actions it is recognized how vainly we sweated in the actions. Concerning this vain labour the Church groans. But because in sacred eloquence night is sometimes put for ignorance, Paul attesting it, who says to the disciples who know the life to come: You are all sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night nor of darkness (1 Thess. 5:5); to whom he had premised:

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief (ibid. v. 4); it can in this place be taken, from their person, as the voice of holy Church, of those who after the gloom of their ignorance return to the love of righteousness, and, illumined by the rays of truth, wash away with weeping what they had erred. For every enlightened man looks back on how base was that at which he laboured through love of the present life. Among these therefore, holy Church, in those in whom she returns to life, compares her labour to a servant panting with heat and to a hireling longing for the end, saying: As a servant longs for the shade, and as a hireling waits for the end of his work:

so I also have had empty months, and have numbered wearisome nights unto myself. For in the comparison there are two things which she premised; in expressing the wearying there are two which she straightway subjoined. To the one panting with heat she rendered empty months, because the more eternal refreshment is sought, so much the more is it perceived how emptily one labours for this life. But to the one waiting she added wearisome nights, because the more, from the end of the work, we behold the reward we are to attain, so much the more do we groan that we long knew not what we seek.

Whence also the very care of the penitent is watchfully expressed, so that he should be said to have numbered wearisome nights, because the more truly we return to God, so much the more subtly do we, by grieving, weigh the labours which through ignorance we endured in this world. For the more sweet becomes to each one that which he desires of eternal things, so much the more grievous is shown to him that which he bore for the love of present things. But if the following words be weighed only according to the letter, by these without doubt is expressed the mind of one grieving, how it is varied through diverse motions of desire, sorrow driving it on. For it is subjoined: