約伯倫理 第 612 章

Verse 14. — He has surrounded me with his lances, he has wounded my loins, he has not spared, and he has poured out my inward parts upon the ground. 19. The enemy assails us from every side with the darts of temptations. — These things might seem able to fit blessed Job according to the letter, through that which is said: He has surrounded me with his lances, he has wounded my loins, he has not spared — were it not that there is subjoined what is by no means read to be written of him: He has poured out my inward parts upon the ground. From which fact it is necessary that, since we cannot find this according to the letter, we should seek according to the spirit those things which in his words sound according to the history. Holy Church is surrounded with lances by her enemy when in her members she is assailed by the crafty assailant with the darts of temptations.

But well are we said to be surrounded with lances, because the ancient enemy assails us from every side with the wound of his temptation. For often, while gluttony is restrained that lust may be subdued, the sting of vainglory strikes the mind. But if the body is not worn down by the affliction of abstinence, against the mind the flame of lust rouses itself. Often, while we strive to keep frugality, we slip into tenacity. And often, while we bestow our possessions lavishly, we are led to avarice, because we seek to gather again what we may bestow. While therefore the darts of the ancient enemy assail us everywhere, rightly is it not said merely: He has surrounded me with his lances.

And because the cunning enemy indeed urges every sin, yet we ourselves commit it by consenting to his persuasions, it is fittingly added: 'He hath wounded my loins.' For in the loins is lust. Whence he too who desired to extinguish the pleasure of concupiscence from the heart proclaimed, saying: 'Gird up the loins of your mind' (1 Pet. i, 13). When therefore the ancient enemy draws the faithful people toward lust, he without doubt strikes them in the loins. And here it is also to be noted that he does not say 'He wounded,' but 'He hath sorely wounded my loins.'

For just as to speak belongs sometimes to one alone, but to converse belongs to two, or perhaps to many, so the ancient enemy—because he does not snatch us to guilt apart from our own will—is said not to wound our loins but to wound them together with us; for that which he wickedly suggests to us, we, following it by our own will, carry out, and as it were we wound ourselves together with him, since we are led to the perpetrating of evil by our own free choice as well. There follows: 'He hath not spared.' As if he said: 'He hath not ceased' (Vet. X). 'And he hath poured out my bowels upon the earth.' What else ought we to understand by the bowels of holy Church than the minds of those who contain within themselves certain of her mysteries, who serve at her innermost sacraments?

But when the ancient adversary drags certain of the faithful—who seemed to serve at the inner sacraments—into worldly affairs, he without doubt pours her bowels upon the ground, because he tramples down amid the lowest things those who before lay hidden in secret and spiritual acts. There follows: