Moralia in Job 951

53. The Church weeps for the sons whom she knows to return to their old life. — Supply: I said. For to the foregoing sentence is joined that which is subjoined in continuous speech, when he says: 'And I said: In my little nest I shall die, and as a palm I shall multiply my days.' And then it is subjoined: 'My root is laid open beside the waters, and the dew shall abide in my harvest.' 'My glory shall ever be renewed, and my bow shall be restored in my hand' (Job 29:20). To all who truly know, it is clear that vices pertain to the old life, virtues to the new. Hence Paul says: 'Putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new' (Col. 3:9). Hence again he says: 'Our old man is crucified together with him' (Rom. 6:6).

Hence the Psalmist, speaking in the type of the human race, caught among malign spirits, says: 'I have grown old among all my enemies' (Ps. 6:8). For from the fervour of the mind, whether among spiritual enemies or among certain carnal neighbours, we in some manner grow old by the very habit of living, and we darken the appearance of the newness we have assumed. From which oldness, nevertheless, if the zeals of circumspection keep watch daily, we are renewed by praying, by reading, by living well, because our life, while it is washed with tears, is exercised in good works, is stretched toward holy meditations, is repaired to its newness without ceasing.

Blessed Job therefore so narrates his own things, that he may signify ours, because holy Church, when she beholds her faithful returning to the guilts of their old life, and loses those whom she gazed upon in the newness of mind, is compelled to weep. For the excellent preacher says to his disciples: 'For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glory? Are not ye, before the Lord?' (1 Thess. 2:19). Holy Church, therefore, as it were bewails a lost glory, when she considers her faithful returning to the old life. For she says: I said: 'My glory shall ever be renewed,' because she knows those whom she believed to serve as soldiers in the newness of life to be serving old desires. 54. How many things are signified in the sacred Scriptures by the name of the bow.

— By the name 'bow' in sacred speech there is sometimes signified the ambush of the wicked, sometimes the day of judgment, and sometimes the sacred words themselves. For by the bow ambushes are figured, as it is said through the Psalmist: 'They have bent their bow, a bitter thing' (Ps. 63:4). By the bow, too, the day of the last judgment is designated, as it is said again through the same Psalmist: 'Thou hast shown thy people hard things; thou hast given us to drink the wine of compunction; thou hast given a token to them that fear thee, that they may flee from the face of the bow' (Ps. 59:5). For in a bow, the farther the string is drawn, the more forcefully the arrow flies from it.

So too the day of the last judgment: the longer it is deferred before it comes, the more severe is the sentence that proceeds from it when it does come. For this reason we are now smitten with various calamities, that, corrected by them, we may then be found more prepared. Hence it was said above: 'Thou hast shown thy people hard things' — namely the scourges of this world, which more grievously run before the coming day of judgment. 'Thou hast given us to drink the wine of compunction,' that earthly joys might be turned into tears. 'Thou hast given a token to them that fear thee, that they may flee from the face of the bow.' As if he plainly said: This is the time of mercy; that shall be the time of judgment.

By these scourges of the present time, therefore, thou dost signify how thou wilt smite then, when thou judgest without sparing, thou who now smitest so severely even while thou sparest. 55. Holy Scripture itself is the bow of the Church. — Sometimes, however, by the bow Holy Scripture too is signified. For it is the bow of the Church, it is the bow of the Lord, from which, like arrows that strike, so terrifying sentences come to the hearts of men. Hence it is rightly said through the Psalmist: 'He hath bent his bow and made it ready, and in it he hath prepared the instruments of death; he hath made his arrows for them that burn' (Ps. 7:13). For the Lord bent his bow, because through Holy Scripture he displayed threats to all sinners.

In which bow, namely, he prepares the instruments of death, because according to the sentence of his own word he condemns as reprobate those who now neglect to be corrected. In which also he made his arrows for them that burn, because upon those whom he corrects through terror he sends forth the kindled sentences of his words. Concerning this bow of the preachers it is said through Isaiah: 'With arrows and bow they shall enter thither' (Isa. 7:24), because indeed the holy apostles came with the sharp darts of their words to strike the hardness of the Gentile life. What, then, in this place should be understood by the name 'bow' but sacred speech? For in the string the New Testament is taken, but in the horn the Old Testament. And in the bow, while the string is drawn, the horn is bent;

so in this same sacred speech, while the New Testament is read, the hardness of the Old Testament is softened. For to its spiritual and gentle precepts the rigor of that letter bends itself, because the New Testament, while it is drawn as it were by an arm of good working, causes the rights of severity in the Old Testament to be bent. Nor do we say unfittingly that the string suits the New Testament, since it is certain that it has come forth from the Lord's incarnation. As it were, then, the string is drawn and the horns are bent, because while in the New Testament the incarnation of the Mediator is acknowledged, the rigor of the Old Testament is inclined toward spiritual understanding. The holy man therefore says: I said,

'My glory shall always be renewed, and my bow in my hand shall be restored.' 56. He rightly uses this bow who, understanding the divine words, fulfills them in deed. — The bow in the hand is Holy Scripture in action. For he holds the bow in his hand who fulfills in deed the divine words that he knows by understanding. The bow, then, is restored in the hand, when whatever is known of the sacred word by study is completed by living. Hence also Solomon, when he described the strong warriors of the spiritual battle, said: 'All holding swords, and most skilled in war' (Cant. 3:8). For what is figured by the sword in divine Scripture, Paul disclosed, saying: 'And the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God' (Eph. 6:17). But Solomon did not say:

'All having swords,' but 'holding' them, because indeed it is not wonderful merely to know the word of God, but to do it. For he has, yet does not hold, the sword, who indeed knows the divine word but neglects to live according to it. And he is no longer able to be learned in war who does not at all exercise the spiritual sword that he has. For he is by no means sufficient to resist temptations who, by living evilly, sets aside the holding of this sword of the word of God. Thus the holy Church, which is depressed by the persecution that follows, weighing the abundance of evils and the poverty of goods, may foretell her losses in the words of blessed Job, saying: 'And I said: In my little nest I shall die, and as a palm I shall multiply my days.'

'My root is spread out by the waters, and dew shall abide in my harvest. My glory shall always be renewed, and my bow in my hand shall be restored.' Considering all these things, I was by no means deceived by an empty hope. For all the perfect now behold her many helpers, but they weigh, beyond doubt, that when the crisis of persecution emerges, very many of these become her enemies, who in the time of peace seem to be her citizens.

But they do not despair of all in this way; yet it often happens that those in whom they had placed the greater confidence of faith become the more savage enemies of that very faith, so that they then see them acting against the sacred words, they by whose working they had believed these same sacred words would be restored to the grace of preaching. Yet we groan that these times have already now begun, since we discern many placed within the Church who either are unwilling to work what they understand, or even scorn to understand and know this same sacred word. For turning away their hearing from the truth, they are turned to fables, while all seek the things that are their own, not the things that are of Jesus Christ (Phil. 2:21).

God's writings, found everywhere, are set before their eyes, but men disdain to know them. Scarcely anyone seeks to know what he has believed. Let the multitude of the good who go before, therefore, grieve that their bow is destroyed — that bow which they had believed the sacred word would always restore through the study of those who follow.