約伯倫理 第 314 章

Ver. 5.—Will the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or will the ox low when he standeth before a full manger? (Job 6:5). 7. The desires of the Gentile world and of Judaea for the coming of the Redeemer.—For what is designated by the wild ass, that is, the wild donkey, but the Gentile people? which, just as nature brought it forth outside the stalls of discipline, so it remained wandering in the field of its own pleasures. What is figured by the ox but the Jewish nation, which, placed under the yoke of supreme dominion, gathering proselytes to the hope, drew the ploughshare of the law through the hearts it was able to master? But by the testimony of blessed Job's life we recognize, so that we may believe that many even from the Gentiles awaited the coming of the Redeemer.

And at the Lord's birth, when Simeon came in the Spirit into the temple, we have learned with how great a desire holy men from the people of Israel longed to see the mystery of His incarnation. Hence too through the same Redeemer it is said to the disciples: 'Many, I say to you, just men and prophets have desired to see the things that ye see, and have not seen them' (Luke 10:24). [Old Vulgate IV] The grass of the wild ass, therefore, and the hay of the ox is this very incarnation of the Mediator, by which the Gentile world and Judaea alike are satisfied. For because it is said through the prophet: 'All flesh is grass' (Isa. 40:6), the Creator of the universe, taking flesh from our substance, willed to become grass, lest our flesh should remain grass forever.

Then therefore the wild ass found grass, when the Gentile people received the grace of the divine incarnation. Then the ox did not have an empty manger, when the law presented to the Jewish people, awaiting His flesh, Him whom it had long prophesied to them as they awaited. Hence too the Lord, being born, is laid in a manger, that it might be signified, namely, that the holy animals which had long been found fasting under the law, are satisfied by the hay of His incarnation. For born, He filled the manger, who offered Himself as food to the minds of mortals, saying: 'He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him' (John 6:57).

But because the vows even of the elect Gentiles were long deferred, and holy ones from the Hebrew people groaned for a long time awaiting their redemption, blessed Job, well narrating the mysteries of prophecy, intimates from both nations the causes of affliction, saying: 'Will the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or will the ox low when he standeth before a full manger?' As if he plainly said: For this reason the Gentile world groans, because the grace of its Redeemer does not yet refresh it; and therefore Judaea prolongs its lowing, because, holding the law, but not seeing the Author of the law, standing before the manger it fasts. And because this same law, before the coming of the Mediator, was held in no wise spiritually but carnally, it is rightly subjoined: