Moralia in Job 482

Ver. 20. — But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and escape shall perish from them. 41. To the wicked there is here some escape from misery; after death none. — That by the name of eyes the force of intention is expressed, the Truth attests through the Gospel, saying: If your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light (Matt. vi, 22); because plainly if a pure intention goes before our work, however otherwise it may appear to men, yet to the eyes of the inner Judge the body of the ensuing action is shown to be pure. The eyes, therefore, of the wicked are the intentions of carnal desires in them. Which for this reason fail, because they neglect eternal things, and ever await transitory things alone.

For they think to acquire earthly glory, they earnestly desire to be multiplied in temporal goods, they daily tend toward death by the course of gliding things; but they know not how to think of mortal things in a mortal manner. The life of the flesh fails moment by moment, and yet carnal desire grows. A thing possessed is snatched away by the instant end, and yet the anxiety of possessing has no end. But when death withdraws the wicked, their desires are assuredly ended with their life. Whose eyes then fail by supernal vengeance, because here by their own judgment they refused to fail from earthly delight. The Psalmist had beheld these eyes of theirs closed from their former pleasantness, when he said: In that day all their thoughts shall perish (Ps. cxlv, 4);

because they find eternal evils never thought of, and suddenly they lose the temporal goods which they long held in their handling. And from them every escape perishes, because their malice finds no way whereby it may hide itself from the notice of the strict Judge. For now the wicked, when they suffer some sadness or adversity, find hiding-places of escape, because they at once recur to the pleasure of carnal desires. For lest poverty torment them, they soothe the mind with riches. Lest the contempt of neighbors depress them, they exalt themselves with dignities. If the body is worn by loathing, it is nourished by the varieties of dainties set before it. If the mind is cast down by any impulse of sadness, it is soon relieved by the interposed flatteries of jests.

So many escapes, therefore, do they have here, as they prepare for themselves delights. But at some time escape perishes for them, because their mind, all things being lost, beholds only itself and the Judge. Then pleasure is withdrawn, but the guilt of pleasure is kept, and suddenly the wretched, by perishing, learn that they held perishable things. Yet, as long as they live bodily, they cease not to seek harmful things. Whence it is further added: