Moralia in Job 955

12. Christ, sitting in us as a king, comforts the mourning. The Church does the same. — The Lord sits in the heart as it were a king, because he governs the clamoring motions of the mind in our thought. For in the mind which he inhabits, while he rouses the torpid things, bridles the restless, kindles the cold, moderates the kindled, softens the rigid, restrains the fluid; from this very diversity of thoughts, as it were a certain army stands around him. Or indeed he sits as a king with an army standing around, because a throng of virtues surrounds him presiding over the minds of the elect. Who is also the comforter of the mourning, from that promise by which he says: 'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted' (Matt. 5:5).

And again: 'I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you' (John 16:22). But those things which we have said concerning the head of the holy Church, nothing prevents, if we refer them also to the voice of that same Church. For in her the order of teachers presides as it were a king, whom the throng of his faithful surrounds. Which multitude of the faithful is rightly called too an army, because in the readiness of good works it is unceasingly prepared daily against the wars of temptations. The holy Church too comforts the hearts of the mourning, while she weighs the minds of the elect afflicted by the hardship of the present pilgrimage, and gladdens these by the promise of the eternal homeland.

She considers also that the thoughts of the faithful are smitten with divine fear; and those whom she beholds to have heard strict things of God so that they fear, she brings it about also that they may hear the mildness of his piety so that they may presume. 13. She mingles hope and fear, lest we incautiously trust in mercy, or despairingly fear justice. — For thus the holy Church, in the course of preaching, mingles for her faithful hope and fear concerning the piety and justice of the Redeemer, so that they may neither incautiously trust in mercy, nor despairingly fear justice. For with the words of her head she revives the fearful, saying: 'Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you the kingdom' (Luke 12:32). And again she terrifies the presumptuous when she says:

'Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation' (Mark 14:38). Again she revives the fearful, saying: 'Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven' (Luke 10:20). But she deters those presuming in themselves, when she says: 'I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven' (Luke 10:18). She revives the fearful, when she says: 'My sheep hear my voice; and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall snatch them out of my hand' (John 10:27). But she deters those presuming in themselves, saying: 'They shall give great signs and wonders, so that, if it were possible, even the elect should be led into error' (Matt. 24:24). She revives the fearful, saying:

'He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved' (Matt. 24:13). She deters the presumptuous, saying: 'When the Son of man cometh, thinkest thou he shall find faith on earth?' (Luke 18:8). She revives the fearful, when she says to the thief: 'This day thou shalt be with me in paradise' (Luke 23:43). But she terrifies the presumptuous, when Judas slips from the glory of the apostolate into the abyss. Of whom by a definitive sentence it is said: 'Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?' (John 6:70). She revives the fearful, when she says: 'If a man put away his wife, and she, departing from him, marry another man, shall he return to her any more? Shall not that woman be polluted and defiled? But thou hast played the harlot with thy many lovers;'

'yet return to me,' says the Lord (Jer. 3:1). But He deters the presumptuous when He says: 'Why do you cry out over your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable' (Jer. 30:12). He cherishes the fearful, saying: 'Therefore at least from this time call to me: You are my father, the guide of my virginity' (Jer. 3:4). But He deters the presumptuous, saying: 'Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite' (Ezek. 16:3). He cherishes the fearful when He says: 'Return, O rebellious Israel, and I will not turn away my face from you, for I am holy, says the Lord, and I will not be angry forever' (Jer. 3:12). But He deters the presumptuous when He forbids His own prophet to intercede, saying:

'Do not take up praise and prayer for them, for I will not hear in the time of their crying out to me in the time of their affliction; for though Moses and Samuel should stand before me, my soul is not toward this people' (Jer. 15:1, 7:16). And so Holy Church both lifts up the mind of her hearers by the graciousness of mercy, and unsettles it by the strictness of judgment, so that, while in her preaching she well mingles both, her elect may neither presume upon the righteousness they have shown, nor despair over their past iniquity. 14. In good pastors kindness and authority, mercy and discipline, are joined together. — But as for this which he says: 'When I sat as a king with the army standing about me, yet I was a comforter of the mourners;'

we ought to know that it can greatly edify the reader even according to the literal sense, if he weighs how in good rulers there is mingled both the authority of governing and the kindness of consoling. For he says: 'When I sat as a king with the army standing about me'—behold the authority of rule; 'yet I was a comforter of the mourners'—behold the ministry of compassion. For discipline or mercy is much impoverished if one is held without the other. But toward his subjects a ruler ought to have both mercy that justly consoles, and discipline that rages with piety. Hence it is that to the wounds of that half-dead man, who was led by the Samaritan into the inn, both wine and oil are applied (Luke

10:33-34), so that by the wine the wounds may be stung, and by the oil they may be soothed; to the end that everyone who is set over the healing of wounds may apply in the wine the sting of severity, and in the oil the softness of piety; by the wine let the rotten parts be cleansed, and by the oil let the parts to be healed be soothed. Gentleness, therefore, must be mingled with severity, and a certain blend made of both, so that subjects may neither be exasperated by too much harshness, nor be dissolved by excessive kindness. This surely is signified by that ark of the tabernacle, in which together with the tablets there is the rod and also the manna (Heb. 9:4); because, since the knowledge of Holy Scripture is in the breast of a good ruler, if there is the rod of severity, let there be also the manna of sweetness. Hence too David says:

'Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me' (Ps. 23:4). For we are struck with the rod, and we are supported by the staff. If, therefore, there is the severity of the rod that smites, let there be also the consolation of the staff that supports. Let there be, then, love, but not softening; let there be vigor, but not exasperating; let there be zeal, but not raging immoderately; let there be piety, but not sparing more than is fitting. It is well to gaze upon mercy joined with severity in the breast of Moses. Let us see him loving tenderly, and yet raging strictly. Certainly, when the people of Israel had contracted before the eyes of God an almost unpardonable offense, so that their ruler heard: 'Go down, for your people has sinned' (Exod. 32:7)—as if the divine voice were at once saying to him:

'He who has fallen into such a sin is now no longer mine,' and would add: 'Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation'; he, again and again setting himself as a barrier against the onrush of the angry God on behalf of the people over whom he was set, says: 'Either forgive them this fault, or, if you do not, blot me out of the book which you have written' (Exod. 32:32). Let us weigh, then, with what bowels of affection he loved that same people, for whose life he asked that he himself might be blotted out of the book of life. And yet this man, who is bound by so great a love of God's people, let us weigh with how great a zeal for righteousness he is kindled against their faults. For as soon as, by his first petition, he obtained pardon of the fault, lest they should be destroyed, coming to that same people he says:

'Let each man put his sword upon his thigh. Go and return from gate to gate through the midst of the camp, and let each one slay his brother, and his friend, and his neighbor.' And there fell in that day about twenty-three thousand men (Exod. 32:27-28). Behold, he who sought the life of all even at the cost of his own death, extinguished the life of a few with the sword. Within he burned with the fire of love; without he was kindled with the zeal of severity. So great was his piety that he did not hesitate to offer himself to death before the Lord for them; so great his severity that those whom he had feared would be smitten by God, he himself smote with the sword of judgment. So he loved those over whom he was set, that for their sake he spared not even himself;

and yet he so pursued the transgressors, whom he loved, that he laid them low even while the Lord was sparing them. In both cases a mighty ambassador, in both cases an admirable mediator, he pleaded the cause of the people before God by prayers, and the cause of God before the people by swords. Loving within, he withstood the divine wrath by supplication; raging without, he consumed the fault by smiting. He came quickly to the aid of all by showing the death of a few. And therefore Almighty God the more quickly heard His faithful servant acting on behalf of the people, because He saw what he himself was about to do against the people for God. In the governing of the people, therefore, Moses mingled both, so that neither did discipline fail mercy, nor mercy fail discipline. Hence here too, according to each virtue, it is said:

'When I sat as a king with the army standing about me, yet I was a comforter of the mourners.' To sit indeed with the army standing about is the vigor and discipline of rule; but to console the hearts of the mourners is the ministry of piety. But since among these things it is necessary that the discourse of exposition should recur to the spiritual understanding: Holy Church, pressed by her adversaries in the last times, remembers the former rights of her rule; she remembers also how great benefits of piety she showed to the afflicted. Whose discipline and mercy are then derided by the frivolous. Hence too there is added: