約伯倫理 第 1001 章

15. The fasting preacher sows, and another eats, when he does not practise what he teaches. — By the manner of sacred eloquence we call it 'to sow' when we preach the words of life. For hence the prophet says: 'Blessed are you who sow upon all waters' (Isa. 32:20). He beheld that the preachers of holy Church sow upon all waters, because they have delivered the words of life, like grains of heavenly bread, to all peoples far and wide. But 'to eat' is to be satisfied with good works. Whence through Himself Truth says: 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent me' (John 4:34). If, therefore, he has neglected to do the things he has uttered, he says: 'Let me sow, and let another eat' (Job 31:8). As if he plainly said: What my mouth speaks, let not I, but another, put into practice.

For the preacher who differs in his conduct from his own words sows fasting what another eats, because he himself is not fed by his own seed, when he is emptied of the rectitude of his own word by wicked action. And because very often disciples hear good things in vain, when they are destroyed by the example of the works of the master's life, it is rightly added: 'And let my offspring be rooted up' (Job 31:8). 16. His offspring is rooted up, because those whom he begets by his word, he slays by his example. — For the offspring of the teacher is rooted up when he who is born through the word is slain through the example, because whom the watchful tongue begets, the negligence of life kills.

For neither must we pass over with a torpid mind what in Solomon's history the woman, sleeping, killed the son whom, waking, she had been accustomed to nurse (1 Kings 3:19), because indeed masters who are watchful in knowledge but sleeping in life kill by the sleep of torpor their hearers, whom they nourish by the vigils of preaching, while they neglect to do what they say, and by neglecting they crush those whom they seemed to nourish with the milk of words. Whence very often, while they themselves live reprehensibly and cannot have disciples of praiseworthy life, they strive to draw others to themselves, so that, while they show that they have good followers, they may excuse before the judgments of men the evils they do, and, as it were, cover their deadly negligence by the life of their subjects.

Whence there the woman, because she extinguished her own son, sought another's. But nevertheless Solomon's sword found the true mother, because indeed by a final examination the wrath of the stern Judge shows whose fruit lives and whose perishes. Where also that must be shrewdly observed, that the living son is first commanded to be divided, so that afterwards he may be restored to the mother alone, because in this life the life of a disciple is, as it were, granted to be divided, while out of it sometimes one is permitted to have merit before God, another indeed praise before men. 17. Having lost her own sons, she envies that others live.

— But the false mother did not fear that he whom she had not borne should be killed, because arrogant masters ignorant of charity, if they cannot obtain the fullest name of praise from another's disciples, cruelly pursue their life. For, kindled by the torch of envy, they are unwilling that those should live for others whom they see they cannot possess. Whence there the perverse woman cries out: 'Let it be neither mine nor his' (1 Kings 3:26). For, as we have said, those whom they do not see obeying themselves unto temporal glory, they envy that they should live for others through truth.

But the true mother strives that her son should at least be and live, even in a stranger's keeping, because truthful masters grant that of their disciples some indeed should have the praise of teaching, provided those same disciples do not lose the integrity of life. By these bowels of piety this same true mother is recognized, because all teaching is approved in the examination of charity; and she alone deserved to receive the whole who, as it were, conceded the whole, because faithful superiors — for the very reason that, from their good disciples, they not only do not envy praise to others, but even beg for them the profit of advancement — themselves receive their sons both whole and living, when in the supreme examination they obtain from their disciples' life the joys of perfect reward.

These few things we have said by way of digression, that we might show how the offspring of hearers is extinguished through the negligence of teachers, because whoever does not live according to what he speaks, tears away those whom he begot by word from the stability of rectitude by his deed. But blessed Job, whom he brought forth by watchful preaching, he in no way extinguished by sleeping action, and therefore he confidently says: 'If I have not fulfilled what I promised, let me sow, and let another eat, and let my offspring be rooted up.' Who, still examining himself concerning the defilement of wicked action, adds: