Moralia in Job 501

Verse 15. — If he withhold the waters, all things shall be dried up; if he send them forth, they shall overturn the earth. If by 'water' the knowledge of preaching is understood, as it is written: The words of a man's mouth are as deep water, and the wellspring of wisdom as an overflowing stream (Prov. xviii, 4), then when the water is withheld, all things are dried up; because, if the knowledge of preachers is withdrawn, the hearts of those who could have grown green in eternal hope forthwith wither, so that they remain in a hopeless dryness, since, loving fleeting things, they know not how to hope for things that abide. But if by the name of 'water' the grace of the Holy Spirit is designated, as it is said by the voice of Truth in the Gospel:

He that believeth in me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (John vii, 38, 39); where the evangelist at once added: But this he said of the Spirit, whom they that believed in him should receive; a fitting sense is disclosed in those words in which he says: If he withhold the waters, all things shall be dried up; because if the grace of the Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the mind of a hearer, forthwith withers the understanding which already seemed to grow green in the hearer through hope. And in that he mentions not 'water' but 'waters,' by the term of plurality he has recourse to the sevenfold grace of spiritual gifts; because each one is, as it were, watered with as many waters as the gifts with which he is filled. Concerning which it is fitly subjoined:

If he send them forth, they shall overturn the earth. For what is meant by 'earth' but the sinner, to whom by sentence it was said: Earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt go (Gen. iii, 19)? The earth, then, remains immovable when the sinner disdains to obey the Lord's precepts; when he raises the neck of pride, and closes the eyes of his mind against the light of truth. But since it is written: His feet stood, and the earth was moved (Habac. iii, 6, according to the LXX),

because when Truth is bound in the heart, the immovability of the mind is stirred, if the grace of the Holy Spirit is poured in by a supernal gift according to the voice of the preacher, straightway the earth is overturned; because the hardness of the sinful mind is changed from the obstinacy of its immovability, so that afterward it subjects itself to the Lord's precepts by weeping as much as before it raised the neck of the heart against the Lord in pride. For you may see that the earth of the human heart, once the water of the divine gift is poured in, afterward willingly endures the wrongs which before it vehemently inflicted; afterward it gives away even its own goods, which before it plundered even from others; afterward it torments the flesh by abstinence, which before flowed away in the satiety of the flesh through the deadly delights of foulness;

afterward it even loves its persecutors, which before was unwilling to love even those who loved it. When therefore the human mind, poured full by the divine gift, begins to act contrary to what it was accustomed, the earth is overturned; because that which before stood high has been cast down, and that face which before was pressed into the depths has been raised on high. This shines forth wonderfully in the converted Paul. It is fitting, as one example among many of this matter, to summon Paul into our midst; who, when, having received letters against Christ, he was journeying to Damascus, the grace of the Holy Spirit being poured upon him on the way, was straightway changed from that cruelty of his; and afterward received blows for Christ, which he was coming to inflict upon Christians;

and he who before, living carnally, endeavoured to deliver up the saints of the Lord to death, rejoices afterward to offer the sacrifice of his own flesh for the life of the saints (1 Tim. i, 13). Those cold thoughts of his cruelty were turned into the ardour of piety; and he who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor, was afterward made a humble and pious preacher (Acts ix, 4). He who counted it the greatest gain to slay Christ in his disciples, now reckons Christ his life, and to die gain (Phil. i, 21). The water having been sent forth, then, the earth was overturned; because the mind of Paul, as soon as it received the grace of the Holy Spirit, changed the state of its immovability and cruelty.

On the contrary, the Lord complains against Ephraim through the prophet, saying: Ephraim is become as bread baked under the ashes, that is not turned (Hosea vii, 8). For bread baked under the ashes, bearing ashes upon itself, presses down the cleaner part below, and has the upper part the more filthy in proportion as it endures the ashes upon it. The mind, then, which thinks of earthly things, what else does it carry upon itself but a mass of ashes? But if it be willing to be turned, it brings back on high the clean face which it had pressed down below, when it has shaken off the ashes it was carrying.

If, therefore, we shake off from the mind the ashes of earthly thoughts, we turn ourselves, as it were, like bread baked under the ashes, so that that intention of ours may now be set below which before the ashes of lowly thought pressed down; and the clean face may come to the higher place, so that our right intention may no longer be pressed by the mass of earthly desire. This we can in no way do unless we are steeped in the grace of the Holy Spirit; because assuredly if almighty God send forth the waters, they shall overturn the earth. There follows: