約伯倫理 第 944 章

36. Good works, though to be hidden through humility, must yet sometimes be published out of necessity. — Amid these things the reader's mind perhaps asks why blessed Job so subtly enumerates his virtues. For it is the custom of holy men to hide the good things they have done, lest it befall them to incur the fall of elation. Whence Truth says through Himself: 'Take heed that you do not your righteousness before men, to be seen by them' (Matt. 6:1). Hence it is too that, giving sight to two blind men sitting by the way, He commanded, saying: 'See that no man know it' (Matt. 9:30). Of whom it is immediately written that they, going away, spread his fame throughout all that land.

But we must inquire what this is, that the Almighty Himself, to whom to will is the same as to be able, both willed His virtues to be kept silent, and yet is as it were unwillingly proclaimed by those who were enlightened — save that He gave an example to His servants following Him, that they indeed should desire their own virtues to be hidden, and yet, that others may profit by their example, should be brought forth unwilling, and by hiding their own deeds should guard themselves, but while they are brought forth unwilling should transmit good examples to their neighbors. Let them therefore be hidden by zeal, and published by necessity; and let their hiding be their own guard, and their publication be another's advantage. Again, because it is written:

'Neither do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may give light to all who are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 5:15-16). Sometimes holy men are even compelled to do good before men, or to relate their own deeds to men; but referring all to this end, that not they themselves but their Father who is in heaven should be glorified for those same works. For when they preach holy things, their preaching perhaps is despised, whose life is not known. They are therefore compelled to tell their own life, that they may be able to change the life of their hearers. And they relate their deeds, that they may be objects of veneration;

they desire to be venerated, that they may be reverently heard. For it is written: 'When the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels also were lifted up together with them' (Ezek. 1:19), because indeed when the minds of hearers look up to the life of the preachers, they necessarily also admire the power of the preaching. 37. Which St. Paul confirmed by his own example. Those who imitate him serve not elation but humility. — Hence it is therefore that good preachers both flee honor because of elation, and yet wish to be honored because of imitation. So indeed the apostle Paul, speaking to his disciples, both fled honor, and yet showed how greatly he was to be honored.

For when he said to the Thessalonians, 'For neither at any time were we in the speech of flattery, as you know, nor in an occasion of avarice: God is witness' (1 Thess. 2:5), he followed by adding: 'Nor sought we glory from men, neither from you, nor from others: whereas we might have been a burden to you, as the apostles of Christ, but we became little ones in the midst of you' (1 Thess. 2:6-7). Again to the Corinthians, fleeing honor, he says: 'For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ our Lord, and ourselves your servants through Jesus Christ' (2 Cor. 4:5). Yet seeing them, by the persuasions of false apostles, deviating from the path of the true faith, he showed them to the utmost how greatly he was to be venerated, saying:

'Wherein if any man dare (I speak foolishly), I dare also. They are Hebrews: so am I. They are Israelites: so am I. They are the seed of Abraham: so am I. They are the ministers of Christ: I am more' (2 Cor. 11:21-23). To whom he also adds that the secrets of the third heaven were laid open to him, that, caught up, he penetrated even the hidden things of paradise. Behold, fleeing honor, he proclaims himself the servant of his disciples. Behold, seeking honor for the profit of his hearers, he sets the merits of his life above the false apostles. For the excellent teacher acted so that, while he himself is acknowledged for what manner of man he was, both the life and the tongue of the evil preachers should grow worthless by comparison with him. He would indeed commend them, if he hid himself:

and when he did not show himself, he would have given place to error. In a wonderful manner therefore he both exhibits the grace of humility and seeks the increase of profit, so that he both proclaims himself the servant of his disciples, and shows himself superior to his adversaries. He shows his disciples what of humility he had received; he shows his adversaries what of sublimity. Against his adversaries is made known what they have of the gift; to his disciples is made known what manner of man he abides in thought within himself; to his adversaries is made known what manner of man he appears without in operation. Holy men therefore, when they are compelled to relate the good things they do, serve not elation but profit.

Whence blessed Job, to his friends who reproached him unjustly, and therefore knew not his good deeds, opens them by speaking, that they might indeed learn not to raise themselves up as reproachers against his life, but silently to imitate it — although, as we have already said above, the despair brought in by his reproachers compelled him to recall his deeds to memory. For amid so many griefs of his wound and words of despair, when he relates the good things he did, he as it were reforms unto hope a mind collapsed by words and blows. Let him therefore tell the good things he did, that he be not compelled amid so many evils to despair of himself which he hears. 'I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame.' 38. The works of justice ought to be set before the works of mercy.

He who bestows alms, yet abstains not from sin, gives his goods to God and himself to sin. — When we ponder the examples of holy work, we must first observe how right an order of narration is preserved, that first the works of justice, and afterward the works of mercy, are described. For that man does well the things that are pious, who knows first to keep the things that are just, so that the stream of mercy poured out upon his neighbors may be drawn from the fountain of justice. For many bestow as it were works of mercy upon their neighbors, but forsake not the deeds of injustice. Who, if they truly strive to do mercy to their neighbors, ought first to have shown mercy to themselves by living justly. Whence it is written: 'Have mercy on thy own soul, pleasing God' (Sir. 30:24).

He therefore who wishes to have mercy on his neighbor, must of necessity draw from himself the origin of showing mercy. For it is written: 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself' (Matt. 19:19). How then is he merciful to another by showing mercy, who is still impious to his very self by living unjustly? Whence it is said through a certain wise man: 'He who is evil to himself, to whom will he be good?' (Sir. 14:5). For to the exhibiting of mercy, that it may be fully bestowed outwardly upon the needy, two things concur that are necessary, that is, the man who bestows, and the thing that is bestowed. But by far and incomparably better is the man than the thing. He therefore who bestows outward substance upon his needy neighbor, but keeps not his own life from wickedness, gives his goods to God, and himself to sin.

That which is less he offered to the Author, and that which is greater he reserved for iniquity. And so it is well said first through blessed Job: 'I put on righteousness, and I clothed myself as with a garment; and with a diadem, with my judgment.' And then it is subjoined: 'I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame.' Because then is there before God an offering of true rectitude, when from the root of justice spring the branches of piety. But because in the very work of mercy the mind is wont to be weighed before the inward Judge more than the deed, it must be noted that he asserts he was an eye to the blind, a foot to the lame. For saying these things, he surely indicates that both to the one he had reached forth his hand through himself, and the other he had sustained by carrying.

From which it is gathered how greatly the bowels of his mercy were poured out over the needy and weak. Whence it is also subjoined: 'I was a father to the poor.' 39. The Church enlightens the blind, sustains the lame. — Which words, if we refer them by typical interpretation to the voice of Holy Church, she herself is an eye to the blind, because through the word she gives light; she herself is a foot to the lame, because through her aid she holds them up. For by preaching she enlightens the blind, and by helping she sustains the lame. For blind is he who does not yet see whither he should go; but lame is he who cannot go whither he sees. For often sin is committed either through ignorance or through infirmity, so that either a man knows not what he ought to will, or cannot do all that he has willed.

On the contrary it is rightly said through the Psalmist: 'The Lord is my light and my salvation' (Ps. 26:1). For because the Lord bestows both knowledge and power, He is called both a light against ignorance, and salvation against infirmity. Hence too it is said of the wicked: 'Let their ways become darkness and slippery' (Ps. 34:6), that is, that through the darkness they may not see whither they ought to go, who, even if they saw right things, yet could not stand in them because of the slipperiness. These therefore through slipperiness limp amid good things; those through darkness are ignorant what good things they should follow.

And so Holy Church, caught in the utmost tribulations, remembers the ancient times, when she was wont both to enlighten by teaching, and to strengthen by helping, and speaks by the mouth of her preceding member, saying: 'I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame.' 40. The blind are the Gentiles, but the lame are the Jews. — And because she gathered two peoples into herself, namely the Jewish and the Gentile, rightly too can the Gentile people be designated by the blind, and the Jewish by the lame. For the Gentile as it were had no eyes, because, not having received the law, he saw not whither he ought to go. On the contrary the Jew, having eyes, was lame, because he indeed held the law by knowing it, but did not stretch forth in it the step of right work.

For if the gentile people had by no means been blind, the prophet would not have said: 'The people that sat in darkness saw a great light' (Isa. 9:2). Again, if the people of Israel had by no means limped away from good works, the Psalmist would never have said in the voice of the Lord: 'The strange children have lied to me; the strange children have grown old, and have limped from their paths' (Ps. 17:46). And that people is called lame precisely because it did not have a sound step in its working, seeing that it was unwilling to use both feet, since it received the one Testament and spurned the other.

When holy Church receives this people as it comes to her—because to it, already holding the Old, she also grafts in the New Testament—she joins, as it were, another foot to direct its steps. And this faithful people of holy Church rightly adds further: 'I was a father of the poor' (cf. Job 29:16), because indeed the humble, who are called the poor in spirit, are begotten from her preaching. But we must in all these things weigh subtly the very words of the history. For he says: