Moralia in Job 988

73. The saints preserve humility at the height of honour, and sorrow amid joyful things. They fight inwardly against prosperity. Everything that abounds without the vision of God is poverty. — According to the literal history I note carefully that the holy man, who a little above said, 'Thou hast lifted me up,' adds below, 'I went about mourning.' For by a wondrous ordering it is wont to come together at one and the same time in the actions of the good, that there is both, outwardly, the honour of an exalted station, and, inwardly, the sorrow of a stricken humility. Hence the holy man too, though raised in fortune and honours, went about mourning; for although the glory of power had shown him set above men, yet within, by his sorrow, he was offering to the Lord the hidden sacrifice of a contrite heart.

For a troubled spirit is a sacrifice to God (Ps. 51:19). Now every one of the elect knows how, by inward consideration, to war against the allurements of outward excellence. For if they set their heart upon their outward felicity, they would assuredly not be just. But because the human heart cannot in any way be left untempted by even the least glory arising from the very prosperity of things, holy men fight inwardly against their own prosperity, so as—I do not say not to be lifted up by it—but not even to yield to the love of it. And to have wholly yielded to it is to have made one's mind captive and subjected it to its desires.

But who, being wise in earthly things and embracing what is temporal, would not have believed blessed Job happy amid so many prosperities, when he had health of body, the life of his children, the safety of his household, and the soundness of his flocks? Yet because he did not rejoice in all these, he is himself his own witness, who says, 'I went about mourning.' For to the holy man, still set in this pilgrimage, everything that abounds without the vision of God is poverty; because, though the elect see all things present to them, they groan that they do not see the Author of all; and to them all this is the less, because still the sight of the One is lacking. And thus the grace of the heavenly dispensation exalts them outwardly, yet in such a way that the sorrow of charity their teacher still holds them within under discipline.

By which charity they plainly learn to humble themselves within their own selves ever more concerning what they receive outwardly, to keep their mind under the yoke of discipline, and never to let the licence of power break out into impatience. Whence it is fitly subjoined: 'Rising up without fury I cried out in the crowd.' For often the tumult of seditious men provokes the mind of their rulers, and by disordered movements they overstep the bounds of their proper order. 74. Impatience is almost always the companion of power, but the good overcome it. — And very often those who preside, unless they be held in the mouth of the heart by the bridle of the Holy Spirit, rush forth into the cruelty of angry retribution; and as much as they have power to act, so much do they reckon lawful to themselves over their subjects.

For impatience is almost always the companion of power; and it commands even its evil subject-mistress, because what she herself feels, power carries out. But holy men subject themselves inwardly to the yoke of patience more than they preside outwardly over men; and they exhibit a truer rule outwardly the humbler the service they hold to God within; and therefore they often bear the more with certain persons, the more they are able to avenge themselves upon them; and lest they ever pass over to unlawful things, they often refuse to exact even what is lawful on their own behalf; they endure the clamour of their subjects, and out of love rebuke those whom in gentleness they carry. Whence it is now rightly said:

'Rising up without fury he cried out in the crowd'; for indeed the good have a cry against the tumults of the insolent, and yet have no fury, since they cease not to teach those whom they mildly tolerate. But these things which, according to the history, we have said of one man, we must, according to the allegory, understand of the diverse elect of the Church. For she herself in her elect goes about mourning even amid prosperities, because she counts nothing truly prosperous for herself until she lay hold of the good which alone she seeks. Her faithful indeed enjoy a temporal peace, yet they sigh for the eternal; they are honoured, and they are afflicted; because very often they are seen to be at the summit there where they are not citizens.

She herself also rises up in the crowd without fury, and cries out, because she pursues the life of the wicked with the zeal of righteous emulation, but not with the madness of fury. She is angry and she loves, she rages and she is tranquil, so that she may correct her weak ones out of emulation, and favour them out of piety. There follows: