Moralia in Job 422

Verse 22: 'There is one thing that I have spoken: both the innocent and the wicked He Himself consumes.' 40. Human purity, compared with the divine, vanishes. The wicked man does not escape God's vengeance. Death invades all.—The innocent is consumed by the Creator, because however great his simplicity may have been, it is swallowed up by the simplicity of the divine greatness. For however zealously we keep simplicity, yet from the consideration of that inmost purity it is shown that this very simplicity which we practise is not simplicity at all. The wicked man too is consumed by the Maker, because, since God orders all things wondrously, his impiety is bound fast by his own very cunning. For in his own punishments he entangles himself even unknowingly, precisely where he exults that he is doing something knowingly.

Since, therefore, almighty God both surpasses the innocence of the good by His simplicity, and, penetrating the craftiness of the wicked, condemns it, it is rightly now said: 'There is one thing that I have spoken: both the innocent and the wicked He Himself consumes.' As if it were openly said: This word of my thought I have brought forth within myself: that neither shall the innocent, if I am strictly examined, appear innocent; nor shall the wicked, if I would lie hidden within myself, be concealed from the keenness of the supreme examination; for the strict Judge, comprehending all things, wondrously penetrates the hidden things of malice, and, ordering this well by His own findings, condemns it.

Or certainly He is said to consume both the innocent and the wicked because, although in the life of the mind they are divided, yet by the desert of the first fault they are alike dragged down to the death of the flesh. Whence it is said also through Solomon: 'The learned dieth in like manner as the unlearned' (Eccles. ii, 16). And again: 'All things are subject to vanity, and all things go to one place; of earth they were made, and to earth they alike return' (Eccles. iii, 19–20). There follows, Verse 23: 'If He scourge, let Him slay at once, and let Him not laugh at the punishments of the innocent.' 41. Job longs for a Mediator to free us by His death.—Who would believe these words to have been uttered through pride, unless he heard the sentence of the Judge, who says: 'You have not spoken before Me what is right, as My servant Job' (Job

xlii, 7)? It remains, therefore, that no one dare to reproach the Author's words, which it is agreed the Judge praises. But they must be searched out in their inmost parts the more cautiously and subtly, the more harshly they sound outwardly. For the holy man, considering the losses of the human race, weighing whence and whither they have come—that man, coveting to know the knowledge of good and evil at the enemy's promising, lost even himself, so that he truly says: 'Even if I be simple, my very soul shall not know it'; that after the punishment of expulsion he sustains also the scourges of corruption, and still tends, after his torment, either to the death of the flesh or certainly to the death of the mind, so that he rightly says: 'Both the innocent and the wicked He Himself consumes';

against these things he seeks the grace of the Mediator, saying: 'If He scourge, let Him slay at once.' For since we have both departed from God in mind and returned to dust in flesh, we are bound by the penalty of a twofold death. But there came to us One who would die for us in flesh alone, who would join His single death to our twofold death, and free us from both deaths. Of which it is said through Paul: 'But in that He died to sin, He died once' (Rom. vi, 10). Let the holy man, then, look upon the losses of our corruption, and let him seek the one death of the Mediator that would destroy our two; and, desiring this, let him say: 'If He scourge, let Him slay at once.' 42. He longs that his desire be not deferred.

—But behold, what is immediately subjoined seems to resist humility: 'And let Him not laugh at the punishments of the innocent.' Yet we recognize this to be most humble without difficulty, if we weigh it with a humble mind. For it is plain to all that every desire is a punishment when it is deferred, Solomon also attesting, who says: 'Hope that is deferred afflicteth the soul' (Prov. xiii, 12). But to laugh, in God's case, is to be unwilling to pity human affliction. Whence again through Solomon the Lord says to the reprobate who persist in their fault: 'I also will laugh in your destruction' (Prov. i, 26); that is, I will feel no compassion with any pity for your affliction.

Before the coming of the Redeemer, therefore, all the elect had their punishment, because, with burning desire, they longed to see the mystery of His incarnation, He Himself attesting, who says: 'Many, I say to you, just men and prophets desired to see the things that you see, and saw them not' (Luke x, 24). And so the punishments of the innocent are the desires of the just. As long, therefore, as the Lord, not pitying, deferred the wishes of His elect, what else did He do than laugh at the punishments of the innocent? And so the holy man, considering the gifts of the Redeemer to come, and grievously bearing the delay of his prayers, says: 'If He scourge, let Him slay at once, and let Him not laugh at the punishments of the innocent.' As if he openly entreated, saying:

Since our life is daily worn away by the scourge of vengeance for fault, let Him now come who for us may die once without fault, that God may no longer laugh at the punishments of the innocent, if He Himself appears passible in flesh, in the desires for whom our mind chastens itself. 43. God laughs at the punishments of the innocent when He is delighted by their tears.—Or certainly, if by God's laughter one means His gladness, the Lord is said to laugh at the punishments of the innocent because, the more ardently He is sought by us, the more sweetly He rejoices over us. For we make, as it were, a certain joy for Him out of our punishment when, through holy desires, we chasten ourselves for love of Him. Hence the Psalmist says:

'Appoint a solemn day amid thronging assemblies, even to the horn of the altar' (Ps. cxvii, 27). For whoever afflicts himself assiduously in desire of Him appoints for the Lord a solemn day in thronging assembly. And this day of solemnity is commanded to be extended even to the horn of the altar, because it is necessary that each one afflict himself just so long, until he attain to the height of the heavenly sacrifice, that is, to the eternal joys. The just man, therefore, because he longs that his desire be fulfilled, not deferred, humbly says: 'Let Him not laugh at the punishments of the innocent.' As if he said: Gladly accepting our vows, let Him defer no longer, but by showing Him forth let Him display Him who chastens us in the expectation of Himself.

But since blessed Job asked especially that He be slain once—He who at the end of the world endured for us the death of the flesh alone—he at once discloses it, adding the very order of His passion too, saying: