約伯倫理 第 865 章

42. That the pillars of heaven are either the angels, or the chief preachers of the Church, or even the Churches themselves. — What else does he call the pillars of heaven but either the holy angels, or the chief preachers of the Church? Upon whom the whole structure of the spiritual building, growing in the heavenly places, has risen up, as elsewhere holy Scripture testifies, saying: 'Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God' (Rev. 3:12). For whoever is made firm in the work of God with right intention is raised up as a pillar in the structure of the spiritual building, so that, set in this temple which is the Church, he may serve both for usefulness and for adornment. And those whom Job calls pillars of heaven, the Apostle calls pillars of the Church, saying:

'Peter, and James, and John, who seemed to be pillars, gave to me the right hands' (Gal. 2:9). 43. We can also not unfittingly understand by the pillars of heaven the Churches themselves, which, being many, make up one Catholic Church spread throughout the whole world. Whence also John the Apostle writes to seven Churches, that he might designate the one Catholic Church full of the sevenfold Spirit of grace (Rev. 1:4; 2:29). And of the Lord we know that Solomon said: 'Wisdom hath builded her a house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars' (Prov. 9:1). And that he might make known that he said this of the seven Churches, he diligently inserted also the very sacraments, saying:

'She hath slain her victims, she hath mingled her wine, and she hath set forth her table; she hath sent her handmaids to call to the citadel and to the walls of the city: Whoso is a little one, let him come to me' (ibid.). For the Lord slew His victims, by offering Himself for us. He mingled wine, tempering the cup of His precepts out of the historical narrative and the spiritual understanding. Whence it is said elsewhere: 'A cup of pure wine is in the hand of the Lord, full of mixture' (Ps. 74:9). 'And she set forth a table,' that is, Holy Scripture, which refreshes us who come to it weary and burdened from the world with the bread of the word, and strengthens us against our adversaries by its own refreshment. Whence it is said also elsewhere by the Church:

'Thou hast prepared a table before me, against them that trouble me' (Ps. 23:5). 'She sent her handmaids,' namely the souls of the apostles, weak in their very beginning, 'to call to the citadel and to the walls of the city,' because while they announce the inner life, they lift us up to the other walls of the heavenly city, which walls indeed none but the humble ascend. Whence there it is added by that same Wisdom: 'Whoso is a little one, let him come to me' (Prov. 9:4). As if it plainly said: Whosoever esteems himself great in his own eyes, straitens for himself the approach of access to me, because one attains to me the more loftily, the more each one's mind is more severely humbled in his own regard. 44. That no one can search out the judgments of God.

— But however great the virtue with which anyone advances, however great the knowledge in which he grows, he does not suffice to penetrate by what governance of His judgments the Creator rules us. Let him say, therefore: 'The pillars of heaven tremble, and are afraid at His beck,' because in very many things not even they themselves are able to attain to the loftiness of His will who behold and announce the rewards of that same will. Which, as we said above, may without hindrance be understood also of the holy angels, because even the very powers of the heavenly ones, who behold this without ceasing, tremble in their very contemplation. But that this same trembling be not penal to them, it is not of fear, but of admiration.

But because he has set forth how great is the awe of admiration of Him, he now narrates the order of our salvation. There follows: