Moralia in Job 385

Verses 12, 13. While it is yet in flower, nor is it plucked by the hand, before all herbs it withers; so are the ways of all who forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish. 66. The hypocrite has the appearance of good works, not the fruit. He turns the gifts of God to the increase of his damnation. By the name of the rush or the sedge, therefore, he signifies the life of the hypocrite, which indeed has an appearance of greenness, but for human uses has not the fruit of usefulness; which, remaining dry from the barrenness of its work, grows green only with the colour of sanctity.

But neither the rush without moisture, nor the sedge without water thrives, because the life of hypocrites does indeed receive the infusion of the supernal gift unto good works, but, in all that it does seeking outward praises, it grows empty of the fruit of the infusion received. For often they do wondrous works of signs, they drive out spirits from possessed bodies, and through the gift of prophecy they foreknow things to come by knowing them; yet nevertheless from the Giver of so many gifts they are divided by the intention of their thought, because through His gifts they seek not His glory but their own favours; and when through the good things received they exalt themselves in their own praise, with those very gifts they fight against the Giver.

For thence they are proud against the Giver, whence they ought the more to have been humble toward Him. But a stricter sentence afterward smites them the more, the more that supernal goodness now pours forth abundantly even upon the ungrateful. And the amplitude of the gift becomes to them the increase of damnation, because, being watered, they bear no fruit, but under the colour of greenness grow empty on high. These the Truth well expresses through the Gospel, saying: Many shall say to Me in that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out demons, and in Thy name done many mighty works? And then will I confess to them: I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity (Matt. vii, 22).

The rush therefore or the sedge does not live without water, because assuredly the hypocrites receive the greenness of good operation only from the supernal gift; but because they seize this for the use of their own praise, they grow indeed green in the water, yet nevertheless empty. 67. The hypocrite is impatient of correction. And it is well subjoined: While it is yet in flower, nor is it plucked by the hand, before all herbs it withers. The rush in flower is the hypocrite in praise. But the sedge, rising with sharp angles, is not plucked by the hand, because, with senses exasperated by arrogance, the hypocrite disdains to be corrected for his own perversity.

In its flower it cuts the hand of him who plucks, because the hypocrite, set in praise, lest anyone dare to correct him, straightway cuts the life of the one correcting with his own harshness. For he desires not to be holy, but to be called so; and when perchance he is corrected, he is as it were lopped off in the glory of his reputation. Being caught in his perversity, he grows angry, forbids the reprover to speak to him, because, as though touched by a hidden wound, he feels pain. Such as he has become known to the unskilled, such does he wish to be esteemed by all; and, readier to die than to be corrected, by rebuke he is rendered worse, because he deems the word of purity as it were the dart of a dire blow. Whence, exasperated, he presently rises up into insults, and searches out what evils he may heap up against the life of his corrector.

He desires to demonstrate his reprover far and incomparably more guilty, that he may show himself innocent not by his own deeds, but by the crimes of another; so that often a man repents of having said anything of rebuke, and as it were from the hand of one plucking, so from the mind of one correcting there runs, so to speak, a certain blood of grief. Whence it is well said through Solomon: Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee (Prov. ix, 8). For the just man need not fear lest the scorner, when he is corrected, offer insults, but lest, drawn to hatred, he become worse. 68. The hypocrite does not persevere in good works. Among these things it is to be known that the good deeds of the just, because they begin from the heart, grow even unto the term of the present life;

But the works of hypocrites, because they are in no way rooted in what is hidden, often fail before the present life comes to its end. For very often they apply themselves to the study of sacred learning; and because they seek this not to prepare themselves for merit but to earn men's favours, as soon as they seize upon the verdict of human praise, and thereby obtain the grace of a passing advancement, they surrender their whole mind to worldly cares and are utterly emptied of sacred learning; and by their conduct they show afterwards how much they love temporal things, they who before had preached only things eternal. Yet very often they display the appearance of an acquired maturity; they are adorned with the calm of silence, with long-suffering patience, and with the virtue of self-restraint;

but when through these things they have attained the height of the honour they sought, and when reverence is now paid to them by all, they straightway pour themselves out into the wantonness of pleasure, and they themselves bear witness against themselves that they did not hold fast to good things from the heart, since they so quickly let them go. Sometimes indeed certain men bestow what they possess, and lavish everything upon the needy; yet nevertheless, before the term of their life, kindled by the itch of avarice, those who seemed to be lavishing their own now covet what belongs to others, and with obstinate cruelty afterwards pursue what they had earlier relinquished out of feigned piety. Hence it is now rightly said: While it is still in flower, and is not plucked by the hand, it withers before all other plants (cf. Job 8:12). For according to the flesh even the righteous are grass, as the prophet attests, who says:

All flesh is grass (Isa. 40:6). But the rush is said to wither before all other plants, because, while the righteous remain in their good, the life of hypocrites is dried up from the greenness of the uprightness they had assumed. The other plants also wither, because the works of the righteous cease with the life of the flesh. But the rush anticipates the drying up of the plants, because before the hypocrite passes from the flesh, he forsakes those deeds of virtue which he had displayed in himself. Of whom it is also well said through the Psalmist: Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers before it is plucked up (Ps. 128:6).

For the grass of the housetop springs up on high, but is in no way made firm by a rich root, because the hypocrite too is indeed seen to do lofty things, yet is not strengthened in them from purity of heart. And this grass, though not plucked up, withers all the more quickly, because clearly the hypocrite still subsists in the present life, and yet already loses the works of holiness as it were the appearance of greenness. For because he was zealous to do good things without the intention of right thinking, in losing them he shows that he had flowered without a root. 69. The hypocrite cannot long enjoy his hope. But Bildad, as we said before, at once makes plain to what he compares the rush or the sedge, when he adds: So are the ways of all who forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish (Job 8:13).

For what does the hypocrite hope for by all his works, except the reverence of honour, the glory of praise, to be feared by his betters, to be called holy by all? But the hope of the hypocrite cannot endure, because, not seeking eternity, he flees from what he holds. For the intention of his mind is in no way fixed upon that glory which is possessed without end, but while he gapes after transitory favours, he loses by receiving that for which he labours, as Truth attests, which says: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward (Matt. 6:2, 5). But this hope of a reward received cannot be held for long, because honour is bestowed for works displayed, but life is driven toward its term; praises resound, but with the praises the times hasten to their end;

and because the mind is in no way rooted in the love of eternity, it slips away together with the very things it loves. For no one is able to love things that move and yet himself stand unmoved. For he who embraces things that pass, by that very fact is drawn into their course, whereby he is entangled with things that run away. Let him say therefore: And the hope of the hypocrite shall perish, because the human praise which he pursues with great labours runs off, driven on by the moments of time. And it is well added: