Moralia in Job 924

It was hidden from men when Wisdom, through the flesh, was to come to men; or how, while appearing outwardly, it remained invisible with the Father. — This Wisdom, coeternal with God, has a way in one manner, and a place in another. But if anyone should understand 'place,' let him understand a place not local. For God cannot be held bodily; but, as has been said, a place is understood, not local. The place of Wisdom is the Father, the place of the Father is Wisdom, as Wisdom itself attests, saying: 'I am in the Father, and the Father in me' (John 14:11). Otherwise, therefore, does Wisdom itself have a way, and otherwise a place: a way through the passage of humanity, but a place through the state of divinity. For it does not pass thence whence it is eternal; but it passes thence whence, for our sake, it appeared temporal.

For so it is written in the Gospel: 'As the Lord was going out from Jericho, He was passing by; and two blind men sitting by the wayside cried out, saying, Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David' (Matt. 20:29-30; Luke 18:35-38). At whose voice, as it is there written, Jesus stood still and restored their sight. What is it then, while passing by, to hear; while standing still, to restore light — save that He had mercy on us through His humanity, who through the power of His divinity shut out from us the darkness of our mind? For in that He was born and suffered for our sake, that He rose again, ascended into heaven — Jesus, as it were, passes by, since this action is indeed temporal.

But standing still, He touched and enlightened them, because the eternity of the Word does not pass away as does that temporal dispensation, but, remaining in itself, renews all things. For to 'stand still' is proper to God — to dispose all mutable things by an immutable thought. He therefore who, passing by, heard the voices of those who asked, standing still restored their sight, because although for our sake He endured temporal things, yet from thence He bestowed light upon us, whence He knows no passage of mutability. Since therefore it was uncertain when He would appear to men through the flesh, it is now rightly said: 'God understandeth its way, and He knoweth its place' (Job 28:23). As if it were openly said:

Hidden from human thought are both when Wisdom should come to men through the flesh, and how, invisible with the Father, it should persist even when it had appeared outwardly. Its coming and its abiding in the hearts of men are unknown. — Yet this can be understood also otherwise. For its way is not inconveniently taken to be this very thing — that it comes to the heart and pours itself within us. But its place becomes the heart, to which, coming, it abides. Of this its way it is said: 'The voice of one crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of the Lord' (Matt. 3:3); that is, in your heart open an entrance to the Wisdom that comes, as it is elsewhere said: 'Make a way for Him who ascendeth above the west' (Ps. 67:5).

To 'ascend above the west' was, by rising again, to have overcome that very death which He had endured. He says therefore: 'Make a way for Him who ascendeth above the west'; that is, to the rising Lord furnish through faith a way in your hearts. Hence it is said to John by the Spirit: 'Thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways' (Luke 1:76). For whosoever by preaching cleanses the hearts of his hearers from the filth of vices, prepares a way for the coming Wisdom. This Wisdom therefore has both a way and a place: a way by which it comes, a place in which it abides, as it itself says: 'If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him' (John 14:23). The way, therefore, is that by which it comes; the place, that in which it abides.

But whither does it come, which is everywhere? Or is the 'coming' of Wisdom, through the enlightenment of our mind, to indicate the presence of its majesty? And because it is uncertain to men both into whose heart it comes, and in whom, after it has come, it rests by abiding, it is now rightly said: 'God understandeth its way, and He knoweth its place,' because it belongs to the divine vision alone to discern both by what means the understanding of Wisdom comes to a man's heart, and whose mind may not lose, through deadly thoughts, the understanding of life which it has received. And because this same Wisdom, made manifest through the grace of humanity, was to fill the hearts of the elect in all parts of the world, it is rightly added: