Moralia in Job 948

48. His sons, if they desire to enjoy peace, let them remain in his nest and bosom. — What is expressed in this place by the name of nest, except the tranquil rest of faith, by which each infirm one is nourished? For that multitude of the good, which had been caught in the times of persecutions, believed it would fulfill the days of its nourishing as it were in a nest, thus in a place of rest. For unless holy Church nourished now in the nest of peace each of her infirm sons, the Psalmist would not say: 'For the sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle-dove a nest, where she may lay her young' (Ps. 83:4). For now the sparrow has found herself a house, because our Redeemer has entered the eternal dwelling of heaven.

And the turtle-dove has found a nest, because holy Church, affected with love of her Maker, makes use of frequent groanings, and, as it were, builds herself a nest, that is, the most peaceful rest of faith, in which she cherishes her growing sons, like fledging young, warmed in the bosom of charity, until they fly forth to the higher things. Therefore, because there will be those who in a time of peace believed they would migrate to the things above, that is, fly forth from the nest, their voice is anticipated by the voice of blessed Job, when he says: 'And I said: In my little nest I shall die' (Job 29:18). But because they promised themselves this very leisure of peace from a length of many days, he rightly adds, saying: 'And as a palm-tree I shall multiply my days.' For the palm makes slow progress, but long subsists in greenness.

For with many difficulties holy Church comes to the state of faith, and for the gathering of very many she longs to stand the longer in the glory of that same faith. Like the palm, therefore, she believed she would multiply her days—she who, when the crisis of a sudden temptation emerges, grieves that the grace of her peace, both slowly attained by the faithful and quickly cut off by the unfaithful. 49. Why the just are compared to the palm. — Nor is it without merit that the life of the just is compared to a palm, because, namely, the palm is below rough to the touch, and as if wrapped in dry barks; but above it is beautiful even to the sight with its fruits; below it is straitened by the wrappings of its barks, but above it is spread out with the amplitude of beautiful greenness.

For such is the life of the elect: despised below, beautiful above; in the lowest it is wrapped as with many barks, while it is straitened by innumerable tribulations; but at the summit it is spread out as with the leaves of beautiful greenness by the amplitude of recompense. The palm has indeed something else by which it differs from all kinds of trees. For every tree subsists near the ground vast in its trunk, but by growing it is straitened above, and the loftier it becomes for a little, so much the more slender it is rendered on high. But the palm begins from the lowest parts of lesser amplitude, and near its branches and fruits rises up with ampler robustness; and where it makes progress slender from the lowest parts, it grows up vaster toward the summit.

To what, then, are other shrubs found to be like, except to earthly minds—below vast, above narrow? Because, namely, all the lovers of this world are strong in earthly things, but weak in heavenly ones. For they yearn to toil even unto death for temporal glory, and for perpetual hope they do not subsist even a little in labour. For earthly gains they endure any injuries whatever, but for the heavenly reward they refuse to bear the reproaches even of the slightest word; they are strong to stand before an earthly judge even the whole day, but in prayer before the Lord they grow weary even in the moment of a single hour.

Often they endure nakedness, dejection, hunger, for the acquiring of riches and honours, and they torment themselves by abstinence from the very things which they hasten to attain; but they dissemble the more from laboriously seeking heavenly things, the more slowly they suppose these to be recompensed. These, then, are, as it were after the manner of other trees, vast below, narrow above, because they are strong in the lower things but fail toward the higher. But on the contrary, by the quality of palms is designated the progressing life of the just, who are by no means strong in earthly pursuits and weak in heavenly ones; but they show themselves more far and more distantly zealous for God than they remember having been for the world. For it is said to certain persons through our preacher:

'I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now yield your members to serve justice unto sanctification' (Rom. 6:19). Without doubt condescension is shown to their infirmity, as if it were said to them more openly: If you can by no means do more, at least be such in the fruit of good works as you were of old in the doing of vices, lest the holy liberty of charity hold you weaker than the use of earthly pleasure held you strong in the flesh. 50. But those are not compared to the palm who, when they have begun well, by no means persevere.

— But there are some who, when they desire heavenly things, and forsake the harmful deeds of this world, daily fall away from their beginning through the pusillanimity of inconstancy. To whom shall I say these are like, except to the remaining shrubs, which by no means rise up above such as they arise below? For these, coming to conversion, do not persevere such as they had begun, and are, as it were after the manner of trees, vast at the beginning, but grow slender, because little by little, through the increases of time, they suffer detriments of virtues. For gradually the heavenly desires languish in them; and those who had proposed robust and strong things, they consummate feeble and infirm things; and while by the increase of age they make progress, they grow as it were pliant.

But the palm, as has been said, is of a vaster quantity at its summit than it had begun to be at its root, because often the conversion of the elect accomplishes more in the finishing than it proposes in the beginning; and if it begins the first things more tepidly, it consummates the last more fervently, namely, always esteeming that it is beginning, and therefore untiring it endures in newness. Beholding this constancy of the just, the prophet says: 'They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall take wings as eagles; they shall run and not labour; they shall walk and not faint' (Isa. 40:31). For they change their strength, because those who of old had been strong in the flesh now strive to be strong in spiritual work.

But they take wings as eagles, because by contemplating they fly. They run and do not labour, because with swiftness they preach great things with great speed. They walk and do not faint, because they retain the swiftness of their understanding, so that they may condescend to the slower. But in all things, the more willingly they accommodate to others the good things which they receive, the more they themselves endure unchangeable in newness; and those who go forth slender from the root of their beginning, grow strong in the perfection of the summit. Let blessed Job therefore say from his own person, let him say from the voice of holy Church, on behalf of those whom she had held converted to herself in the time of peace, and believed would persevere in good morals: 'And I said: In my little nest I shall die, and as a palm-tree I shall multiply my days.'

For, as it were, like a palm she believed she would multiply her days, she who supposed that the minds of the faithful would rise up more robust unto the very end. For when the hearts of many begin to grow soft, wearied by persecutions, she grieves that those whom she marvelled to have proposed strong things now, as it were, tend within herself toward weakness. And because she always applies her mind to spiritual knowledge, it is rightly added: