約伯倫理 第 935 章

22. The feet of the Lord are the preachers, whom He anoints and cleanses. — Since we have already often said that Christ and the Church are one person—He indeed the head of this body, and she the body of that head—these words must be taken in one way according to the voice of the head, and in another according to the voice of the body. Whom, then, do we take to be the feet of the Lord, but the holy preachers? Of whom He says: 'And I will walk in them' (Lev. 26:12). The feet, then, are washed with butter, because the holy preachers are filled with the fatness of good works. For, as we have already said above (Book 1, no. 30), preaching itself is scarcely passed through without some fault. For whoever preaches is drawn either to some indignation, however slight, if he is despised;

or to some glory, however slight, if he is honored by his hearers. Hence also the apostles' feet were washed, that from whatever slight contagion contracted in the very preaching, as from a dust gathered on a certain journey, they might be cleansed. And blessed James says: 'Be not many masters, my brethren' (James 3:1). And a little after: 'For in many things we all offend' (Ibid., 2). The feet, then, are washed with butter, because the dust gathered from the glory of preaching is anointed and cleansed with the fatness of good work.

Or certainly the feet are washed with butter, when the due stipends are conferred by the hearers upon the holy preachers, and the fatness of good work, offered by the disciples, cherishes those whom the enjoined labor of preaching wearies—not that they preach in order to be fed, but that they are fed in order to preach; that is, that they may be able to continue preaching, so that the preacher's action may not pass over into the intention of taking sustenance, but that the ministries of sustenance may serve the usefulness of preaching. Hence by good preachers preaching is not expended for the sake of food, but food is received for the sake of preaching. And whenever necessaries are conferred by the hearers upon the preachers, they are wont to rejoice not in the gift of goods, but in the reward of those who confer them.

Hence it is said through Paul: 'I seek not the gift, but I require the fruit' (Phil. 4:17). For the gift is the very thing that is expended; but the fruit of the gift is if something is expended with a kindly mind out of zeal for the future reward. Therefore we take the gift in the thing, the fruit in the heart. And because the Apostle was fed rather by the reward than by the gift of his disciples, he confesses that he seeks by no means the gift, but the fruit. Hence he immediately added, saying: 'But I have all things, and abound' (Ibid., 18). The feet, then, are washed with butter, when the holy preachers, as we have said, wearied by the preaching itself, are cherished by the good works of their hearers. For he had anointed weary feet with butter who heard: 'The bowels of the saints have been refreshed by thee, brother' (Philemon

7) had anointed weary feet with butter. With this butter had that foot been anointed which was held in a chain, saying: 'The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus; for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain' (2 Tim. 1:16). If, then, we weigh these words from the voice of the head, we rightly take the feet, as has been said, to be the preachers. [Old 12.] 23. The feet of the Church are the lower ministers, who care for earthly things. — But if we ought to understand these things from the voice of the body alone, then the feet of the Church are surely the ministers of lower works, who, while for necessary uses they exercise the things that are outward, through their lowest ministry cling like feet to the earth.

But those who preside, who watch with zeal for teaching, ought with careful concern to seek out the hearts of the busy, and to minister to them, by the voice of frequent admonition, the infusion of fatness which they themselves perceive by being at leisure. For because in one body the members are mutually solicitous for one another, just as our lowest parts are supported by their ministries, so it is necessary that their inner parts be filled by our zealous efforts. When, therefore, the holy teachers preach the unction of the Lord's incarnation to certain ones devoted to the lowest ministries, they wash the feet with the butter of eloquence. The feet also are wont to be lacerated by the very roughness of the road.

Hence it is altogether difficult to make the journey of this life in earthly actions, and to sustain no wounds from the labor of the journey. When, therefore, the vigilant prelates recall to the heart their hearers who are intent on outward cares, so that they may recognize the evils they have committed even amid lawful works, and may bewail what they have recognized, they wash the feet with butter, because they have ministered the ointments of penance to their wounds. Let the Church, then, vehemently afflicted, remember how in the time of her peace, through the word of exhortation, she cleansed even the lowest members within herself, and let her say: 'When I washed my feet with butter.'

Which it is delightful to behold wonderfully in blessed Job, who, amid so many cares of affairs, amid so many affections for his pledges, amid so many zealous efforts of sacrifices, preached to his subjects, however lowly, the power of the good that follows, that he might imbue with heavenly things those who served him in earthly works. What do we bishops say to these things, we who care not to expend the word of life to those committed to us, when neither the secular habit nor the occupation of great means was able to prohibit a married man from the office of preaching? [Rec. 11.]

But, the truth of history being preserved, let us return now to the words of the holy Church, which speaks through blessed Job—that is, through the mouth of her member—how great are the things which she shall suffer in the last time, when she remembers the things she has passed through, when by her, namely, the life of those who labor used to be washed by the fatness of the word. And, more fully pursuing also the vigilance of her preachers, she adds: