Moralia in Job 429

Verses 30, 31. — If I be washed as with waters of snow, and my hands shine as most clean, yet thou shalt dip me in filth, and my garments shall abhor me. 56. Tears cleanse if they flow with humility; if not for earthly, but for heavenly goods. — For the waters of snow are the laments of humility. Which humility indeed, since before the eyes of the strict Judge it stands preeminent above the other virtues, shines as it were with the colour of great merit. For there are some who have laments, but have not humility, since being afflicted they mourn, yet in those very weepings either grow proud against the life of their neighbours, or lift themselves up against the ordination of the Creator.

These indeed have waters, but have not the waters of snow, and cannot be clean, since they are by no means washed with the weepings of humility. But he had washed himself from fault with the waters of snow, who confidently said: A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise (Psal. 1, 19). For they who are afflicted with laments, but by murmuring are rebellious, do indeed bruise their mind, yet disdain to be humbled. Although the waters of snow can be understood also in another way. For the water of a fountain and of a river rises from the earth, but the water of snow bursts forth from the air. And there are very many who torment themselves with the laments of prayers, yet with all the labours of their lamentings sweat only toward earthly desires; they are pricked in prayers, but seek the joys of transitory felicity.

These therefore the water of snow does not wash, since their weeping comes from the depths. For they are as if drenched with the water of the earth, who in prayers are pricked for earthly goods. But they who weep for this cause, that they desire the heavenly rewards, the water of snow washes clean, since heavenly compunction pours upon them. For when through laments they long for the eternal fatherland, and, kindled with its desires, mourn, they receive from on high wherewith they may be cleansed. But by the hands what else is designated than works? Whence to certain ones it is said through the prophet: Your hands are full of blood (Isa. i, 15); that is, your works with cruelty. 57. We do not attain here to perfect cleanness. — But it is to be noted that the holy man does not say: My most clean hands have shone;

but, as most clean my hands, since so long as we are bound fast by the penalty of corruption, we by no means lay hold of true cleanness, however upright our works, but only imitate it. Whence also it is fittingly subjoined: Yet thou shalt dip me in filth. God is said to dip us in filth — to show us dipped in filth, because the more truly we rise up to Him through good works, the more subtly do we recognize the filth of our life, whereby we are at variance with His cleanness. He says therefore: If I be washed as with waters of snow, and my hands shine as most clean, yet thou shalt dip me in filth. As if he said more openly:

Although I be flooded with the laments of heavenly compunction, although I be exercised through the pursuits of upright action, yet in Thy cleanness I see that I am not clean. For this very corruptible flesh still buffets the soul that is intent upon God, and defiles the beauty of His love with the obscene and unlawful masses of thoughts. [Old Version XXIX.] 58. The body is the garment of the soul. — Whence also it is added: And my garments shall abhor me. For what is expressed by the name of garment but this earthly body, wherewith the soul, being clothed, is covered, lest in the subtlety of its substance it be seen naked? For hence Solomon says: At all times let thy garments be white (Eccles. ix, 8); that is, the members of the body clean from filthy deeds. Hence Isaiah says:

A garment mingled with blood shall be for burning (Isai. ix, 5). For to mingle a garment with blood is to defile the body with carnal desires. By which the Psalmist had verily feared to be polluted, when he said: Deliver me from bloods, O God, thou God of my salvation (Psal. 50, 16). Hence by the voice of the angel it is said to John: Thou hast a few names in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments (Apoc. iii, 4). But after the manner of sacred eloquence our garments are said to abhor us, since they render us abhorrent; just as through Peter it is likewise said of Judas: This man possessed a field of the wages of iniquity (Acts i, 18).

For Judas could not possess the potter's field bought with the price of blood, who, the thirty pieces of silver having been returned, forthwith visited upon himself the crime of his betrayal with a yet more criminal death; but he is said to have possessed it — he caused it to be possessed. So in this place: My garments shall abhor me is said for they shall make me abhorrent, since without doubt while the members grow proud against the mind, while they interrupt the pursuits of holy desire with the tumults of their temptations, the soul, placed in its very struggle, recognizes how much it is still despised by the Godhead — the soul which, wholly desiring to pass beyond its own reproof but unable, is defiled by the dust of foul thought. This abhorrence of garments he had felt who said:

I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom. vii, 23). These garments also, in which he could not perfectly please, being at some time to be better resumed, he desired to lay aside in haste, saying: Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. vii, 24). Let the just man therefore say: If I be washed as with waters of snow, and my hands shine as most clean, yet thou shalt dip me in filth, and my garments shall abhor me;

since however high he may have ascended unto the heights out of the compunction of contemplation, however he may have girded himself in the work through the exercise of toil, he yet feels something still unworthy of the body of death, and considers himself abhorrent in many things which he bears from the weight of corruption. [Old Version XXX, Received Version XX.] To whom this too becomes the heavier, that often he does not even understand wherein he offends. He receives scourges, but knows not what in himself, or what less, displeases the strict Judge. Whence also it is added: