Moralia in Job 941

29. The Church both feeds and protects her sons. — These are the works of great mercy: to deliver the poor man who cries out, to minister help to the orphan, to snatch away one about to perish, to console the heart of the widow. For above it was said what he displayed through teaching. For he said: 'The ear that heard me called me blessed.' But now he relates what he bestowed through mercy, saying: 'Because I delivered the poor man that cried out, and the orphan that had no helper' (Job 29:12). For the voice necessarily agrees with the work in unison. These things blessed Job both displayed to his subjects, and yet signified as things to be displayed through Holy Church.

Which she now unceasingly practises in both respects, namely that she may both feed her sons by speaking and protect them by defending, so that she may both satisfy the good by her words and shield them from the evil by her patronage. And it is well written: 'Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may make seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind' (Gen. 1:11). Which was so truly done that it might signify something to be truly done. For by the earth is the Church figured, who both refreshes us with the pasture of the word, and guards us with the shade of her patronage; who both feeds by speaking, and protects by aiding, so that she brings forth not only the herb of refreshment, but also the tree of protection with the fruit of work.

31. In the rulers of the Church let there be neither rigid severity nor dissolute gentleness. — I see that this too must be weighed by those who are set over the governance of the peoples, that he who said above, 'The young men saw me and hid themselves,' now adds, 'I consoled the heart of the widow.' How great the discipline of rule, that before him the young men should hide themselves; how great the gentleness of piety, that through him the hearts of widows should be consoled! For there are some (Dist. 45, canon 'Sunt namque') so strict that they lose even all the gentleness of kindness; and there are some so gentle that they forfeit the strict rights of rule.

Whence by all rulers both must be held with the greatest care, that neither in the vigor of discipline should they abandon the benignity of gentleness, nor again in gentleness should they forsake the strictness of discipline, so that neither should they grow hard against the compassion of piety when they correct the obstinate, nor soften the vigor of discipline when they console the minds of the weak. Let therefore the vigor of discipline rule gentleness, and let gentleness adorn vigor, and let the one be so commended by the other that neither should vigor be rigid nor gentleness dissolute. 31. The works of piety are exhibited by the Church both corporally and spiritually. These works of piety which we have spoken of above, Holy Church both exhibits corporally, and ceases not to exhibit spiritually.

For she delivers the poor man who cries out, when she looses to the sinner who prays for pardon the faults which he had committed. Of such poor it is said: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. 5:3). And of such poor is the cry of those who say by the voice of the Psalmist: 'Let thy mercy speedily go before us, for we are become exceedingly poor' (Ps. 78:8). But she delivers the orphan that has no helper, when each one, the ancient father the devil being dead, running to the bosom of Holy Church, finds therein the help of exhortation, who now flees the desires of the persecuting world.

By the name of the orphan can also be understood every faithful one on account of the death of a good father, of whose sight he is for a time bereft, although he is not bereft of consolation. The blessing also of the one about to perish comes upon her, when she forestalls the destruction of the sinner, and by holy exhortations leads him back from the pit of fault. Whence it is written: 'He who has made a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins' (Jas. 5:20). For if it is of great reward to snatch from death the flesh that must one day die, of how great merit is it to free from death a soul that shall live without end in the heavenly fatherland?

But he consoles the heart of the widow, when to every faithful soul he relates the eternal recompenses of the Lord, as it were recalling to memory the good things of her husband. For because a soul is spiritually joined to Him, when He is dead it is called a widow, but by the voices of Holy Church it is revived from His resurrection. Great consolation therefore does the heart of the widow receive, when the faithful soul learns in the words of the Church something concerning the coming of Him to whom it is spiritually joined. There follows: