Moralia in Job 697

Verse 22.—'Why do you persecute me as God, and are filled with my flesh?' 60. God does not persecute us by raging.—It is not repugnant to pious speech that he declares himself persecuted by God. For there is a good persecutor, as the Lord says of Himself by the mouth of the prophet: 'Him who secretly detracted from his neighbour, him did I persecute' (Ps. c, 5). But when any holy man is permitted to be scourged, he knows that he suffers persecution against the vices he has committed, by an inward dispensation. But the cruel minds of persecutors, when they seek the power of striking, are kindled against the life of the good not by zeal for purgation, but by the torches of envy. And indeed they do that which God Almighty permits to be done.

But although one and the same cause is carried on with God even through them, yet not one and the same will is preserved in that same cause; for while Almighty God, in loving, shows forth purgation, the perversity of the unjust, in raging, exercises malice. That, then, which is said, 'Why do you persecute me as God?'—he referred this to the outward smiting, not to the inward intention; because although they do outwardly that which God disposed to be done, yet they do not seek that which God seeks in His action, namely, that the good be purged by affliction. This can be understood also in another way. For Almighty God the more justly smites the vices of others, in that in Himself He has nothing of vices.

But men, when they strike others by way of discipline, ought so to smite another's weakness that they know also to turn their eyes back to their own, so that from themselves they may consider how much they should spare others in striking, since they are not ignorant that they too are themselves worthy of stripes. And so it is now said: 'Why do you persecute me as God?' As if it were plainly said: You so afflict me because of my infirmities, as if you yourselves, after the manner of God, had nothing of infirmity. Whence it must be considered that if perchance there be any who need the harshness of rebuke, then a hard rebuke is to be applied to them by us when God's hand ceases from the scourge.

But when the supernal scourges are present, no longer rebuke, but consolation is owed by us, lest, while we join reproof to sorrow, we should add one smiting to another. 61. Detractors, after the manner of beasts, devour men.—But it is well added: 'And are filled with my flesh?' Those whose mind hungers for the punishments of their neighbours, seeks without doubt to be filled with the flesh of others. It is also to be known that those who feed upon the detraction of another's life are without doubt sated with another's flesh. Whence by Solomon it is said: 'Be not in the feasts of drinkers, nor eat with those who bring flesh to be eaten' (Prov. xxiii, 20).

For to bring flesh to be eaten is, in the converse of detraction, mutually to speak the vices of one's neighbours. Concerning whose punishment it is soon there added: 'Because those who spend their time in drink, and give a contribution, shall be consumed, and drowsiness shall be clothed in rags' (ibid.). They spend their time in drink who make themselves drunk with the reproach of another's life. But to give a contribution is, just as each one is wont for his own part to bring food to be eaten, so in the conversation of detraction to bring forth words. But those who spend their time in drink and give a contribution shall be consumed, because, as it is written (perhaps Prov. xv), 'Every detractor shall be rooted out.'

But drowsiness shall be clothed in rags, because his own death finds despised and destitute of all good works the man whom here the languor of his detraction has occupied in seeking out the crimes of another's life. (Vetus XXVI.) But so many hard things which blessed Job endures, it is not fitting that they should pass by in silence, and that the obscurity of ignorance should hide them from the knowledge of men. For they are able to edify unto the keeping of patience in proportion as, the supernal grace filling them, men come to know the deeds of his patience. Whence the same blessed Job wishes the scourges which he feels to be brought forth as an example, who straightway subjoins, saying: