Moralia in Job 893

39. Heretics are to be summoned back to the Sacred Scriptures and the books of the ancient Fathers. — By silver is wont to be designated eloquence, by gold the brightness of life or of wisdom. And because heretics so pride themselves on the brilliance of their own eloquence that they are supported by no authority of the sacred books (which books are for us, as it were, certain veins of silver for speaking, since from them we draw the origin of our discourse), he recalls them to the pages of sacred authority, that if they truly desire to speak, they ought to take thence what they should say. And he says: 'Silver hath the beginnings of its veins' (Job XXVIII, 1). As if he plainly said:

He who prepares himself for the words of true preaching must needs draw the origins of his arguments from the sacred pages, so that all he speaks he may refer back to the foundation of divine authority, and thereupon establish the edifice of his discourse. For, as we have said before, heretics, while they strive to build up their own perverse doctrines, often bring forth things which are assuredly not contained in the pages of the sacred books. Whence also that excellent preacher admonishes his disciple, saying: 'O Timothy, guard the deposit, avoiding profane novelties of words' (1 Timothy VI, 20); because, while heretics desire to be praised as though for surpassing genius, they bring forth, as it were, certain new things which are not contained in the old books of the ancient Fathers;

and so it comes to pass that, while they desire to seem wise, they scatter seeds of folly among their wretched hearers. 40. The Catholic Church alone has martyrs. — Well then is it added: 'And there is a place for gold where it is melted' (Job XXVIII, 1). As if he plainly said: The true wisdom of the faithful, for which the whole Church is a place, suffers tribulation while you persecute it, but by the fire of your persecution it is purged of all the filth of sins. Whence it is written: 'The furnace trieth the gold and silver; but acceptable men are tried in the furnace of humiliation' (Ecclesiasticus II, 5). In which passage this too may fittingly be understood, that heretics may be seen to be rebuked for their foolish suffering.

For often, for the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Redeemer, they suffer much, and hope by those same sufferings to become His martyrs. To whom now it is said by the voice of the holy man: 'There is a place for gold where it is melted.' For according to what has been said even before our time (Cyprian, On the Unity of the Church, and elsewhere), whoever suffers outside the unity of the Church can indeed suffer punishments, but cannot become a martyr, because there is a place for gold where it is melted. What then, O heretics, do you say to this? You wish to be melted through the affliction of the flesh, or even through martyrdom, but you know not the place in which you ought to be melted. Hear what is said by the voice of the holy preacher: 'There is a place for gold where it is melted.'

Seek therefore this place of melting; find this furnace, in which gold can be duly purged. 41. Whatever is endured outside the Church torments, but does not purge. — There is one Church, in which he who has been willing to be melted can also be purged of every filth of sins. If, placed outside this Church, you endure any bitterness for God, any tribulation, you can only be burned, not purged. Let Jeremiah say — let him say how the fire of your melting is void of all virtue: 'The founder hath melted in vain, for their wickednesses are not consumed' (Jeremiah VI, 29).

Behold, the fire melting outwardly applies also the pain of harsh suffering, and yet it does not burn away the guilt of error; it gives the torments of cruel punishments, and yet effects no increase of good merits. That this fire of melting which is endured outside the Catholic Church is of no virtue at all, the Apostle Paul intimates, saying: 'If I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing' (1 Corinthians XIII, 3). For some think perversely of God; others hold rightly concerning their Author, but do not keep unity with the brethren. The former are divided by error of faith, the latter indeed by the perpetration of schism.

Whence also in the very first part of the Decalogue the faults of both parties are repressed, when it is said by the divine voice: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength' (Deuteronomy VI, 5). And soon after it is added: 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' For he who thinks perversely of God, it is clearly manifest that he does not love God. And he who, thinking rightly of God, is divided from the unity of the holy Church, it is plain that he does not love his neighbour, whom he refuses to have as a companion. 42. Because charity is lacking to schismatics as much as to heretics.

— Whosoever, therefore, is divided from this unity of Mother Church, whether by heresy in thinking perversely of God, or by the error of schism in not loving his neighbour, is deprived of the grace of that charity, of which Paul says what we have set forth above: 'If I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing' (1 Corinthians XIII, 3). As if he said with open voice: Fire applied to me outside its own place of melting torments me with pain, but does not purge me with cleansing. This place all lovers of holy peace seek with the utmost zeal; seeking it, they find it; finding it, they hold it, knowing where, and when, and to whom, remission of sins is given. Where indeed, save in the bosom of the Catholic Mother?

When, save before the day of the coming departure? For, 'Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation' (2 Corinthians VI, 2). And: 'Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near' (Isaiah LV, 6). To whom, save to the converted, who are formed after the imitation of little ones, with humility as their teacher? To whom it is said: 'Suffer the little ones to come to Me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven' (Matthew XIX, 14). And: 'Unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven' (Matthew XVIII, 3). Because, then, true martyrs are made only in the Catholic Church, it is rightly said:

'There is a place for gold where it is melted,' because the soul will not shine in the splendour of eternal beauty unless, so to speak, it has first burned here in the workshop of charity. 45. God saves some through innocence, others through penitence. — It must moreover be pondered that, by hidden counsel, Almighty God, guarding some innocent from their very beginnings, advances them even to the heights of virtues, so that, with exaltation increasing, there may progress in them at once both the multitude of years and the loftiness of merits. Others, indeed, forsaking them in their beginnings, He permits to go through steep places with vices gushing forth.

Yet often He looks upon these too, and kindles them with the fire of holy love to follow Him, and turns the deep-rooted itchings of vices in their hearts into the fervour of virtues; and they burn the more with mighty flames toward the desire of seeking the piety of God, the more they blush at the memory of their iniquity — as it often happens that in the contest of battle a soldier, stationed before the eyes of his commander, shamefully yields to the enemy's might and, feebly turning his back, is struck; yet, blushing at this very thing which he did shamefully, before the eyes of his commander he takes greater strength from that very shame, and thereafter performs deeds so valiant as both to procure the present glory of valour and to cover the past disgrace of his weakness.

So then, sometimes certain men in the service of God are more keenly strengthened by their former weakness; and the desire of things to come both draws them to the keeping of the commandments, and the memory of things past impels them, so that hence love urges them toward things to come, and thence shame at things past goads them. Yet the adversaries of the Church, when they see such men endowed with the highest virtues, and can by no means find anything in the present life whereby to disparage them, contrive to accuse them of things past — as the Manichaean assails our Moses, in whom he attempts to defile the grace of following virtues with the guilt of a past homicide. In whom he does not consider how patient he afterward was to endure, but only how headlong he first was to strike.

Meeting such adversaries, then, with most subtle consideration, blessed Job, after he had said: 'Silver hath the beginnings of its veins, and there is a place for gold where it is melted,' fittingly added: