Moralia in Job 863

39. In this life the glory of God is known only in part.—Knowledge is wont to be shown in the face. His face alone therefore is held, because by us in this life the glory of his kingdom is not recognized as great as it is held within. Over which it is rightly said that a mist is spread, because as it is, that glory of the heavenly kingdom is not seen. For 'the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the sense that muses upon many things' (Wisdom IX, 15). From seeing him, therefore, we are sprinkled with a mist, because we are darkened by the very obscurity of our ignorance. Whence it is rightly said through the Psalmist: 'Darkness under his feet, and he ascended upon the cherubim, and flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds, and he made darkness his hiding place' (Psalm XVII, 10-11 [Vulg.]).

For darkness is beneath His feet, because He is not beheld in that same brightness by the lower things as He is by the higher over which He reigns. For 'He ascended upon the cherubim, and He flew.' Now 'cherubim' is interpreted as the fullness of knowledge. He is therefore said to have ascended above the fullness of knowledge and to have flown, because no knowledge comprehends the loftiness of His majesty. He flew, then, because He snatched Himself far up on high, away from our understanding. 'He flew upon the wings of the winds,' because He transcends the knowledge of souls. 'He set darkness His hiding-place,' because while we are darkened by the mist of our own weakness, He is hidden from us through our own ignorance, that He may not now be seen by us in that eternal and inmost brightness.

Hence also in the Song of Songs the bride says to Him: 'Flee, my beloved, flee' (Cant. 8:14). We say a thing flees us as often as what we wish to recall does not come to our mind. We say a thing flees us when we do not hold in memory what we desire. Holy Church, therefore, after she describes the Lord's death and resurrection and ascension, cries out to Him, full of the prophetic Spirit: 'Flee, my beloved, flee.' As if she said: Thou who according to the flesh hast been made comprehensible, according to Thy divinity surpass the understanding of our perception, and in Thyself remain incomprehensible to us. He holds, then, the face of His throne, because He hides the power of His majesty from mortals. 40. That the very ministries of the angels are little known.

— But if by His throne we understand the angelic powers — for over them He presides as over a royal seat — He holds from us the face of His throne, because so long as we subsist in this mortal flesh we do not see what and how great those ministries of the angels are. 'And He spreadeth over it His cloud,' because without doubt He both lifts up our heart to seek, and yet by a hidden governance it is brought about that the heart is checked by the very immensity of its own inquiry. Whence it is written: 'The deep uttered its voice, from the height of its imagination' (Habak. 3:10). For the human mind is compelled to cry out in wonder, while, in the height of contemplation, in its very inquiries, by the very fact that it is stretched more widely, it is straitened.

Or certainly, because we ourselves are the throne of God, He is not unfittingly said to hold the face of His throne, while our knowledge is prevented from advancing to higher things. Over which His throne God is said to sprinkle His cloud, because, remaining invisible, He puts forth hidden judgments over us, so that both what we can see comes to pass openly, and yet the origin of the deed lies hidden in secret, so that we must not know why it comes to pass. Whence also it is aptly added: