約伯倫理 第 1030 章

42. Let no one rely on his own merits: Christ the helper and Mediator is to be sought. — The holy man, after he had narrated so many sublime deeds of his virtues, knowing that by his own merits he could not attain to the highest things, seeks a helper. And whom indeed does he contemplate but the only-begotten Son of God, who, when He assumed human nature laboring in this mortality, helped it? For He Himself helped man, being made man, so that, since to mere man the way of returning to God did not lie open, the way of returning might be made through God-man. For we were far distant from the just and immortal One, we mortal and unjust.

But between the immortal and just One and us mortal and unjust, there appeared the Mediator of God and men, mortal and just, who both had death with men, and justice with God, so that, since through our lowest things we were far distant from the highest, He might in Himself alone join the lowest with the highest, and from Him the way of returning to God might be made for us, whereby He might couple our lowest things with His highest. This Mediator, therefore, blessed Job, speaking in signification of the whole Church, seeks, who, when he had said, 'Who will grant me a helper,' fitly subjoined, 'That the Almighty may hear my desire.' For he knew that human prayers could not be heard for the rest of eternal deliverance except through his Advocate. Of whom it is said through John the apostle:

'If anyone shall have sinned, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just, and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world' (1 John II, 1, 2). Of whom Paul the apostle says: 'Christ Jesus, who died for us, yea, who also rose again, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us' (Rom. VIII, 34). For the only-begotten Son to intercede for man is to show Himself as man before the co-eternal Father, and for Him to have prayed for human nature is to have taken up that same nature into the loftiness of His divinity. The Lord therefore intercedes for us, not by voice, but by compassion, since what He was unwilling to be condemned in the elect, by assuming it He set free.

A helper therefore is sought that the desire may be heard, since unless the intercession of the Mediator interceded for us, the voices of our prayers would beyond doubt fall silent at the ear of God. 43. God hears not words but the desires of the heart. — It is also to be noted that it is by no means said 'prayers,' but 'may the Almighty hear my desire.' For true supplication consists not in the voices of the mouth, but in the thoughts of the heart. For it is not our words, but our desires, that make the stronger voices at the most secret ears of God. For if we ask for eternal life with the mouth, and yet do not desire it with the heart, in crying out we are silent. But if we desire from the heart, even when we are silent with the mouth, in keeping silence we cry out.

Hence it is that in the wilderness the people cry out with loud voices, while Moses is silent amid the din of their words; and yet, though silent, he is heard by the ear of the divine mercy, when it is said: 'Why criest thou unto me?' (Exod. xiv, 15). Within, therefore, in desire, there is a hidden cry which does not reach human ears, and yet fills the hearing of the Creator. Hence it is that Hannah, going up to the Temple, was indeed silent with her mouth, and yet uttered so many voices of her longing (1 Sam. i, 13). Hence in the Gospel the Lord says: 'Enter into thy chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father in secret; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, will repay thee' (Matt. vi, 6).

For he asks in his chamber with the door shut who, while his mouth is silent, pours out the affection of his mind in the sight of the mercy on high. And the voice is heard in secret when men cry out silently through holy desires. Whence it is rightly said also through the Psalmist: 'The Lord hath heard the desire of the poor; thine ear hath heard the preparation of their heart' (Ps. x, 17). But blessed Job, in the words that follow, discloses whom he seeks as helper in obtaining what he desires, saying: