Moralia in Job 1459 part 1/3

At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others also, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was to come. And he said to them: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into his harvest. Go: behold, I send you as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes; and salute no man by the way. Into whatsoever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as are set before you. For the labourer is worthy of his hire.

Do not go from house to house. And into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you; and heal the sick that are therein, and say to them: The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. Our Lord and Saviour, most beloved brethren, admonishes us sometimes by his words, and sometimes indeed by his deeds. For his very deeds are precepts, since while he silently does something, he makes known to us what we ought to do. Behold, he sends his disciples two by two to preach, because there are two precepts of charity, namely the love of God and of neighbour; and charity cannot be had among fewer than two.

For no one is properly said to have charity toward his own self, but love reaches out toward another, that it may be able to be charity. The Lord sends his disciples two by two to preach, that he may thereby silently intimate to us that whoever does not have charity toward another ought by no means to undertake the office of preaching. And it is well said that he sent them before his face into every city and place where he himself was to come. For the Lord follows his preachers, because preaching goes before, and then the Lord comes to the dwelling-place of our mind, when the words of exhortation run ahead, and through these truth is received into the mind. Hence indeed Isaiah says to these same preachers:

Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God (Isaiah 40:3). Here the Psalmist says to them: Make a way for him who ascends above the west (Psalm 67:5). For the Lord ascends above the west, because from the very place where he lay dead in his passion, thence by rising again he manifested his greater glory. He ascends above the west, namely, because by rising again he trod down the death which he had endured. Therefore we make a way for him who ascends above the west when we preach his glory to your minds, that coming afterward he himself may also enlighten them by the presence of his love. Now that the preachers have been sent, let us hear what he says: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into his harvest.

For the great harvest the labourers are few—which we cannot speak of without deep sorrow—because although there are those who hear good things, there are lacking those who would say them. Behold, the world is full of priests, yet in God's harvest a labourer is found very rarely; for we have indeed undertaken the priestly office, but we do not fulfil the work of the office. But consider, most beloved brethren, consider what is said: Pray the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into his harvest. Petition on our behalf, that we may be able to work worthily for you, lest our tongue grow sluggish in exhortation, lest after we have received the place of preaching our silence condemn us before the just Judge. For often the tongue of preachers is restrained on account of their own wickedness;

but often it comes about through the fault of subjects that the word of preaching is withdrawn from those who preside over them. By his own wickedness the tongue of preachers is restrained, as the Psalmist says: But to the sinner God said: Why dost thou declare my justices? (Psalm 49:16). And again, the voice of preachers is forbidden by the fault of subjects, as the Lord says to Ezekiel: I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, and thou shalt be dumb, and not as a man that reproveth, because it is a provoking house (Ezekiel 3:26). As if he plainly said: For this reason the word of preaching is taken from thee, because while the people provoke me by their deeds, they are not worthy that the exhortation of truth should be made to them.

Therefore by whose fault the word is withdrawn from the preacher is not easily known. But that the silence of the pastor sometimes harms himself, and always harms his subjects, is known most certainly. But would that, if we are not sufficient for the power of preaching, we might at least hold the office of our position by a blameless life. For it is added: Behold, I send you as lambs among wolves. Yet many, when they receive the rights of governing, blaze up to mangle their subjects, they display the terror of their power, and they harm those to whom they ought to have been of profit.

And because they do not have the bowels of charity, they long to appear as lords, they by no means acknowledge themselves to be fathers, they change the place of humility into the elation of domination; and if at times they flatter outwardly, inwardly they rage. Of whom the Truth says elsewhere: They come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves (Matthew 7:15). Against all which things it must be considered by us that we are sent as lambs among wolves, so that, keeping the sense of innocence, we may not have the bite of malice. For he who undertakes the place of preaching ought not to inflict evils, but to bear them, that by his very meekness he may soften the anger of the raging, and that, himself wounded by afflictions, he may heal the wounds of sinners in others.

And even if at times the zeal of righteousness demands that he be severe toward his subjects, let the fervour itself come from love, not from cruelty, so that he may both outwardly display the rights of discipline, and inwardly love with fatherly affection those whom outwardly he chastises as though pursuing them. This the ruler fittingly displays when he does not know how to love himself by private love, when he desires nothing of the things that are of the world, when he in no way bows the neck of his mind under the burdens of earthly cupidity. Whence it is also added: Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes; and salute no man by the way.

For the preacher ought to have such great trust in God that, although he does not provide for himself the expenses of the present life, he nevertheless knows most certainly that these will not be lacking to him, lest, while his mind is occupied with temporal things, he provide the less for others the things that are eternal. He is also permitted to salute no one by the way, that it may be shown with how great haste he ought to proceed on the way of preaching. But if anyone should wish these words to be understood also allegorically: in the purse money is enclosed; but money enclosed is hidden wisdom. Whoever therefore has the word of wisdom, but neglects to spend it out to his neighbour, holds it as it were money bound up in a purse. Whence it is written: Wisdom that is hid, and treasure that is not seen: what profit is there in them both? (Ecclesiasticus

41:17). But what is signified by the scrip except the burdens of the world; and what in this place by the shoes except the examples of dead works? He therefore who undertakes the office of preaching, it is not fitting that he carry the burden of secular affairs, lest, while this weighs down his neck, he not rise up to preach heavenly things. Nor ought he to look upon the examples of foolish works, lest he believe that he fortifies his own works as it were with dead skins. For there are many who defend their own depravity by the depravities of others. For because they consider that others have done such things, they think they may do these things freely. What else do these do, except try to fortify their feet with the skins of dead animals?

But everyone who salutes on the way, salutes from the occasion of the journey, not from a zeal for desiring the same salvation. Whoever therefore preaches salvation to his hearers not from love of the eternal fatherland, but from the ambition for rewards, salutes as it were on the way, because he wishes salvation to his hearers from occasion, and not from intention. There follows: Into whatsoever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. The peace which is offered by the mouth of the preacher either rests in the house, if the son of peace be therein, or returns to the same preacher; because either each one will be predestined to life, and follows the heavenly Word which he hears;

or, if no one shall be willing to hear, the preacher himself will not be without fruit, because the peace returns to him, since a reward is recompensed to him by the Lord for the labour of his work. Behold, he who forbade the carrying of the scrip and the purse, grants expenses and food from the same preaching. For it is added: And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as are set before you. For the labourer is worthy of his hire. If our peace is received, it is fitting that we remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as are with them, that we may obtain from them earthly wages, to whom we offer the rewards of the heavenly fatherland. Whence also Paul, receiving these very things as a very small matter, says:

If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things? (1 Corinthians 9:11). And it is to be noted what is added: The labourer is worthy of his hire; because now the very food of sustenance is part of the reward of the work, so that here the reward may be begun from the labour of preaching, which there is perfected from the vision of truth. In which matter it is to be considered that to our one work two rewards are due: one on the way, the other in the fatherland; one which sustains us in labour, the other which remunerates us in the resurrection. The reward therefore which is received in the present ought to work this in us, that we may strive more strongly toward the following reward.

Therefore every true preacher ought not to preach for this reason, that he may receive a reward in this present time, but to receive a reward for this reason, that he may be sustained in preaching. For whoever preaches for this reason, that he may receive here the reward either of praise or of gift, without doubt deprives himself of the eternal reward. But whoever either desires the things which he says to please men for this reason, that while what is said pleases, through those same words not he himself but the Lord may be loved; or for this reason obtains earthly wages in preaching, that he may not be wearied from the voice of preaching through want—for such a one without doubt nothing hinders from receiving the reward in the fatherland, because he took his provisions on the way.

But what are we (which nevertheless I cannot say without grief), what are we, O pastors, doing, who both obtain the reward, and yet are by no means labourers? For we receive the fruits of holy Church in daily wages, and yet we by no means labour in preaching for the eternal Church. Let us weigh of what condemnation it is to receive here the reward of labour without labour. Behold, we live from the offering of the faithful, but what do we labour for the souls of the faithful? We take into our wages what the faithful have offered for the redeeming of their sins, and yet we do not toil against those same sins, as is fitting, either by zeal of prayer or of preaching. Scarcely do we rebuke anyone with open voice for his fault.

And still worse—what is more grievous—sometimes, if a person be powerful in this world, his errors are perhaps praised, lest, if one oppose him, through anger he withdraw the gift which he was bestowing. But we ought without ceasing to remember what is written of certain ones: They shall eat the sins of my people (Hosea 4:8). But why are they said to eat the sins of the people, except because they foster the sins of the offenders, lest they lose their temporal wages? But we also who live from the offerings of the faithful, which they have offered for their sins, if we eat and are silent, without doubt we eat their sins. Let us therefore weigh of what crime it is before God to eat the price of sins, and to do nothing against those sins by preaching.

Let us hear what is said by the voice of blessed Job: If my land cry against me, and its furrows weep with it, if I have eaten its fruits without money (Job 31:38-39). For the land cries against its possessor when the Church justly murmurs against its pastor. And its furrows weep, if the hearts of the hearers—which have been ploughed up by the voice of preaching and the vigour of reproof by the preceding fathers—see anything in the life of the pastor which they may bewail. And of such a land the good possessor does not eat the fruit without money, because the discreet pastor pays out beforehand the talent of the word, lest to his own condemnation he take the wage of food from the Church.

For then do we eat the fruits of our land with money, when, receiving ecclesiastical support, we labour in preaching. For we are heralds of the coming Judge. Who therefore shall announce the coming Judge, if the herald is silent? Accordingly it must be considered by us that, insofar as each one is able, insofar as he is sufficient, he strive to instil into the Church committed to him both the terror of the coming judgment and the sweetness of the kingdom. And he who is not sufficient by one and the same voice of exhortation to admonish all at once, ought to instruct individuals, insofar as he is able, to edify by private conversations, and by simple exhortation to seek fruit in the hearts of his children.

For we ought continually to weigh what is said to the holy apostles, and through the apostles to us: You are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). If therefore we are salt, we ought to season the minds of the faithful. You therefore who are pastors, consider that you feed the animals of God. Of which animals indeed it is said to God through the Psalmist: Thy animals shall dwell therein (Psalm 67:11). And often we see that a rock of salt is set out for the brute animals, that they may lick that same rock of salt and be improved. As therefore among brute animals, so ought the priest to be a rock of salt among the peoples.

For it is necessary that the priest take care what things he says to individuals, how he admonishes each one, so that whoever is joined to the priest may, as it were by the touch of salt, be seasoned with the savour of eternal life. For we are not the salt of the earth, if we do not season the hearts of our hearers. And this seasoning he truly bestows upon his neighbour who does not withdraw the word of preaching. But then do we truly preach right things to others, if we show our words by deeds, if we ourselves are pricked with divine love, and with daily tears wash the stains of human life, which can in no way pass without fault.

But then are we truly pricked concerning ourselves, if we diligently weigh the deeds of the preceding fathers, so that from the beholding of their glory, our own life may grow vile in our own eyes. Then are we truly pricked, when we diligently search out the precepts of the Lord, and through these strive to advance ourselves, by which we know that those whom we venerate have already advanced. Hence indeed it is written of Moses: He set also the laver of brass, in which Aaron and his sons might wash, when they entered into the holy of holies, which he made of the mirrors of the women that watched at the door of the tabernacle (Exodus 38:8).

Moses indeed sets up a laver of brass, in which the priests ought to wash and to enter the holy of holies, because the law of God commands us first to be washed by compunction, that our uncleanness be not unworthy to penetrate the cleanness of the secret things of God. And well is the laver shown to have been made of the mirrors of the women who watched unceasingly at the door of the tabernacle. The mirrors of the women indeed are the precepts of God, in which holy souls always look at themselves, and if there be in them any stains of foulness, they detect them.

They correct the vices of their thoughts, and, as it were, compose their countenances that struggle back into shape, as from a reflected image; because while they attentively heed the Lord's precepts, in them without doubt they recognize either what may please the heavenly Man in themselves, or what may displease. These women, as long as they are in this life, can by no means enter the eternal tabernacle. But nevertheless the women watch at the door of the tabernacle, because holy souls, even while they are still weighed down by the infirmity of the flesh, yet by continual love observe the entrance of the reciprocal entering-in.

Moses therefore made the laver for the priests from the mirrors of the women, because the law of God offers the washing of compunction for the stains of our sins, while it presents to us the heavenly precepts to be gazed upon, through which holy souls have pleased the supernal Bridegroom. If we diligently heed them, we see the stains of our inward image. And seeing the stains, we are pricked with the sorrow of penitence; and being pricked, we are as it were washed in the laver made of the mirrors of the women. But it is very necessary that when we are moved with compunction concerning ourselves, we may also be zealous for the life of those committed to us. Let therefore the bitterness of compunction so move us, that nevertheless it not turn us away from the guardianship of our neighbours.

For what does it profit, if, loving ourselves, we abandon our neighbours? Or again what does it profit, if, loving or being zealous for our neighbours, we abandon ourselves? In the adornment of the tabernacle indeed the scarlet twice dyed is commanded to be offered (Exodus 25:4), so that before the eyes of God our charity may be coloured with the love of God and of neighbour. But he truly loves himself who loves his Author with a pure love. Then therefore is the scarlet twice dyed, when the soul is inflamed toward itself and toward its neighbour by the love of truth. But among these things it must be known by us that the zeal of righteousness against the wicked deeds of neighbours must be so exercised that in the fervour of strictness the virtue of meekness be in no way abandoned.

For the anger of the priest ought by no means to be headlong and disturbed, but rather to be tempered by the gravity of counsel. And so we ought both to bear those whom we correct, and to correct those whom we bear, lest, if either of the two be lacking, the priestly action be either not in fervour or not in meekness. Hence indeed it is that in the ministry of the temple, upon the bases of the temple, lions and oxen and cherubim were expressed in sculptured work. The cherubim indeed is the fullness of knowledge. But what is it that on the bases neither lions without oxen, nor oxen without lions are made? For what else do the bases in the temple designate, except the priests in the Church? Who, while they endure the solicitude of governing, bear as it were after the manner of bases a burden set upon them.

On the bases therefore cherubim are expressed, because it is indeed fitting that the breasts of priests be filled with the fullness of knowledge. But by the lions the terror of severity, by the oxen the patience of meekness is figured. And so on the bases neither lions without oxen, nor oxen without lions are expressed, because always in the priestly breast, together with the terror of severity, the virtue of meekness must be preserved, so that meekness may season anger, and lest that same meekness be perhaps dissolute, the zeal of strictness may kindle it. But why do we speak these things, when we still see very many being burdened with more atrocious deeds?

For to you priests I speak lamenting, because we have learned that some of you make ordinations with rewards, sell spiritual grace, and from the iniquities of others heap up temporal gains together with the loss of sin. Why therefore does it not return to your memory what the Lord's voice commanding says: Freely you have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8). Why does it not recall before the eyes of the mind that our Redeemer, having entered the temple, overturned the chairs of them that sold doves, and poured out the money of the money-changers? (John 2:14-15). For who are they in the temple of God today who sell doves, except those who in the Church receive a price for the laying on of hands? Through which laying on, namely, the Holy Spirit is given from heaven.

The dove therefore is sold, because the laying on of hands, through which the Holy Spirit is received, is offered for a price. But our Redeemer overturned the chairs of them that sold doves, because he destroys the priesthood of such traffickers. Hence it is that the sacred canons condemn the simoniacal heresy, and command those to be deprived of the priesthood who seek a price for the conferring of orders. The chair therefore of them that sell doves is overturned when those who sell spiritual grace are deprived of the priesthood, whether before human eyes or before the eyes of God. And indeed there are many other evils of those set in authority which now lie hidden from human eyes. And very often

they show themselves to men as holy pastors, and in their hidden things do not blush to be seen as base before the eyes of the inward Judge. That day will come, will surely come, and is not far off, in which the Shepherd of shepherds shall appear, and shall bring the deeds of each one into the open, and he who now avenges the faults of subjects through those set over them, shall then, raging by himself, condemn the evils of those set over them. Whence also, having entered the temple, he made as it were by himself a scourge of cords, and casting the wicked traffickers out of the house of God, he overturned the chairs of them that sold doves (John 2:14-15), because he strikes the faults of subjects through the pastors, but smites the vices of the pastors by himself. Behold, now it can be denied to men what is done secretly.

But certainly the Judge is coming, from whom no one can hide himself by keeping silent, whom no one can deceive by denying. There is also another thing, most beloved brethren, which vehemently afflicts me concerning the life of pastors; but lest what I assert seem perhaps injurious to anyone here, I also accuse myself equally, although, compelled by the necessity of a barbaric time, I lie in these things very much against my will. For we have slipped down to external affairs, and we have received one thing from our honour, and we exhibit another in the office of action. We have abandoned the ministry of preaching, and, to our own punishment, as I see, we are called bishops, who hold the name of the honour, not the virtue. For those who are committed to us abandon God, and we are silent.

They lie in wicked deeds, and we do not stretch out the hand of correction. Daily they perish through many wickednesses, and we negligently see them tending toward hell. But when could we avail to correct another's life, we who neglect our own? For intent on secular cares, we are made so much the more insensible within, the more zealous we appear toward the things which are without. For by the very habit of earthly care the mind grows hardened away from heavenly desire; and while it is made hard by its very habit through the action of the world, it cannot be softened toward those things which pertain to the charity of God. Whence well does holy Church say of her weak members: They have made me the keeper in the vineyards; my vineyard I have not kept (Canticles 1:5).

For our vineyards indeed are our actions, which by the habit of daily labour we cultivate. But set as keepers in the vineyards, we by no means keep our own vineyard, because while we are entangled in extraneous actions, we neglect the ministry of our own action. I think, most beloved brethren, that God suffers no greater prejudice from any others than from the priests, when he sees those whom he set for the correction of others giving of themselves examples of depravity, when we ourselves sin, who ought to have checked sins. Very often—what is more grievous—priests who ought to have given their own things even plunder the things of others. Very often, if they see any living humbly, if any living continently, they mock them.

Consider therefore what becomes of the flocks, when the pastors become wolves. For these undertake the guardianship of the flock, who do not fear to lie in wait for the Lord's flock, against whom the flocks of God ought to have been guarded. We seek no gain of souls, daily we have leisure for our own pursuits, we covet earthly things, with intent mind we grasp after human glory. And because by the very fact that we are set as prelates over others, we have greater licence to do whatever we please, we turn the ministry of the blessing we received into an argument for ambition; we abandon the cause of God, we have leisure for earthly affairs; we receive the place of holiness, and are entangled in earthly deeds. Truly is fulfilled in us what is written: And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest (Hosea 4:9).

For the priest does not differ from the people, when by no merit of his own does he transcend the conduct of the common crowd. Let us implore the tears of Jeremiah; let him consider our death, and lamenting say: How is the gold become dim, the finest colour is changed, the stones of the sanctuary are scattered in the top of every street? (Lamentations 4:1). The gold indeed is become dim, because the life of priests, once bright through the glory of virtues, is now shown to be reprobate through the basest actions. The finest colour is changed, because that habit of holiness, through earthly and abject works, comes to the ignominy of contempt.

But the stones of the sanctuary were kept within, nor were they taken up on the body of the high priest except when, entering the holy of holies, he appeared in the secret of his Maker. We therefore, most beloved brethren, we are the stones of the sanctuary who ought always to appear in the secret place of God; whom it is never necessary to be seen without, that is, never to be seen in extraneous actions. But the stones of the sanctuary are scattered in the top of every street, because those who through life and prayer ought always to have been within, through a reprobate life are idle without. Behold, now there is almost no secular action which priests do not administer. While therefore, established in the holy habit, they exhibit outward things, they lie as it were like the stones of the sanctuary without.

For because in Greek a street is called from its breadth, the stones of the sanctuary are in the streets when religious persons pursue broad ways there. And not only in the streets, but also in the top of the streets, they are scattered, because they both perform works through the desire of this world, and yet seek the summit of honour from their religious habit. In the top of the streets therefore they are scattered, because they both lie prostrate through the ministry of work, and wish to be honoured for the image of holiness. But you see with how great a sword the world is smitten, you see by what daily blows the people perish. By whose fault is this done, if not chiefly by ours? Behold, cities are depopulated, camps overthrown, churches and monasteries destroyed, fields reduced to solitude.