Job 1:21

Job’s words may be more elegantly understood of evil and sin in this way: Naked was I formed from the earth at the beginning, as if from a mother’s womb. Naked to the earth shall I also depart—naked not of possessions, for that would be a trivial and common thing; rather, naked of evil and sin and of the unsightly shape which follows those who have led bad lives. Obviously all of us human beings are born naked and again are buried naked, swathed only in grave clothes. For God has provided for us another life, and made the present life the way for the course which leads to it. He appoints the supplies derived from what we possess merely as provisions for the way. And when we come to the end of this way, the wealth, consisting of the things which we possessed, journeys no farther with us. For not a single thing that we possess is properly our own. We are properly owners of only one possession, that is, godliness. Death will not rob us of this when it overtakes us. It will, however, throw out everything else, although it will do so against our will. For it is for the support of life that we all have received what we possess; and after enjoying merely the use of it, each one departs, obtaining from life what amounts to a brief memento. For this is the end of all prosperity; this is the conclusion of the good things of this life. It is only right, then, that the infant upon opening its eyes after issuing from the womb, immediately begins with crying, not with laughter. For it weeps, as if bewailing life, at whose hands from the outset it tastes of deadly gifts. For immediately on being born its hands and feet are swaddled; and swathed in bonds, it begins nursing. O introduction to life, precursor to death! The child has but entered on life, and immediately there is put upon it the clothing of the dead; for nature reminds those that are born of their end. This is also why the child, on being born, wails, as if crying plaintively to its mother. Why, O mother, did you bring me out into this life in which prolongation of life is progress to death? Why have you brought me into this troubled world, in which, on being born, swaddled bands are my first experience? Why have you delivered me to such a life as this, in which both a pitiable youth wastes away before old age, and old age is shunned as under the doom of death? Dreadful, O mother, is the course of life, which has death as the goal of the runner. Bitter is the road of life we travel, with the grave as the wayfarer’s inn. Perilous the sea of life we sail, for it has Hades as a pirate to attack us. Humankind alone is born in all aspects naked, without a weapon or clothing born with it. This does not mean you are inferior to the other animals, but the nakedness and the fact you bring nothing with you are designed to produce thought. That thought, in turn, may bring out dexterity, expel sloth, introduce the arts for the supply of our needs, and beget a variety of ingenuity. For, naked, human beings are full of contrivances, being pricked on by their necessity, as by a goad, to figure out how to escape rains, how to elude cold, how to fence off blows, how to till the earth, how to terrify wild beasts; how to subdue the more powerful of them. Wetted with rain, they conceive of a roof; having suffered from cold, they invent clothing; being struck, they constructed a breastplate; their hands bleeding with the thorns in tilling the ground, they avail themselves of the help of tools; in their naked state liable to become a prey to wild beasts, they discovered from their fear an art which frightened the very thing that frightened them. Nakedness begat one accomplishment after another, so that even their nakedness was a gift and benevolence. Accordingly, Job also being made naked of wealth, possessions, of the blessing of children, of a numerous offspring, and having lost everything in a short time, uttered this grateful explanation: “Naked came I out of the womb, naked also I shall depart thither,” to God and to that blessed lot and rest.

The text means that Job was not covered with crimes and evil deeds and would have returned “naked,” that is, pure and innocent to “his mother’s womb.” He was so firm in his holy frankness that you may easily imagine he had never turned aside from righteousness nor would have ever passed from virtue to vice in the future.

Be perfectly assured of this, that though the reasons for what is ordained by God are beyond us, yet always what is arranged for us by him who is wise and who loves us is to be accepted, be it ever so grievous to endure. He himself knows how he is appointing what is best for each and why the terms of life that he fixes for us are unequal. There exists some reason incomprehensible to us why some are sooner carried far away from us, and some are left a longer while behind to bear the burdens of this painful life. So we should always adore his lovingkindness and not express discontent, remembering those great and famous words of the great athlete Job, when he had seen ten children at one table, in one short moment, crushed to death, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.” As the Lord thought good so it came to pass. Let us adopt those marvelous words. At the hands of the righteous Judge, those who demonstrate similar good deeds shall receive a similar reward. We have not lost the boy; we have restored him to the Lender. His life is not destroyed; it is changed for the better. He whom we love is not hidden in the ground; he is received into heaven. Let us wait a little while, and we shall be once more with him. The time of our separation is not long, for in this life we are all like travelers on a journey, hurrying on to the same shelter. While one has reached his rest, another arrives, another hurries on, but one and the same end awaits them all. He has outstripped us on the way, but we shall all travel the same road, and the same hostel awaits us all.

Do not believe, dear brothers, that Job’s gesture indicates a defeat. It is, above all, a sign of victory. Indeed, if he had done nothing, he would have appeared to be insensitive. Job actually demonstrates himself to be altogether wise, fatherly and pious. What damage did he suffer? He grieves not only for the loss of his children and his cattle but also for the way they died. Who would have not been shattered by such events? Which man of steel would have not been affected? Paul himself often expressed his tearful reaction to events, “What are you doing weeping and breaking my heart?” We should admire Paul’s response. In the same way, Job also deserves to be admired because, in spite of the emotion that pushed him to make that moving gesture, he does not speak a single inappropriate word.

Those who lost all their worldly possessions in the sack of Rome, if they owned their possessions as they had been taught by the apostle who himself was poor without, but rich within—that is to say, if they used the world as though not using it—they could say in the words of Job, heavily tried but not overcome, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has happened: Blessed be the name of the Lord." Like a good servant, Job counted the will of his Lord his greatest possession and through obedience to that will his soul was enriched. It didn't grieve him while he was still alive to lose those goods which he was shortly going to have to leave at his death. But as to those feebler spirits who, though they cannot be said to prefer earthly possessions to Christ, still hang on to them with a somewhat moderate attachment to them, they have discovered by the pain of losing these things how much they were sinning in loving them. For their grief is of their own making. In the words of the apostle quoted above, "They have pierced themselves through with many sorrows." For it was well that they who had so long despised these verbal admonitions should receive the teaching of experience. For when the apostle says "They that will be rich fall into temptation," and so on, what he blames in riches is not the possession of them but the desire for them. For elsewhere he says, "Charge those who are rich in this world not to be high-minded or trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." They who were making such a use of their property have been consoled for light losses by great gains, and have had more pleasure in those possessions which they have securely laid past, by freely giving them away, than grief in which those they entirely lost by an anxious and selfish hoarding of them. For nothing could perish on earth except what they would be ashamed to carry away from the earth. Our Lord's injunction runs, "Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through or steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." And they who have listened to this injunction have proved in the time of tribulation how well they were advised in not despising this most trustworthy teacher and most faithful and mighty guardian of their treasure. For if many were glad that their treasure was stored in places which the enemy chanced not to light upon, how much better founded was the joy of those who, by the counsel of their God, have fled with their treasure to a citadel which no enemy can possibly reach!

One of the hermits said, ‘Unless you first hate, you cannot love. Unless you hate sin, you cannot live sinlessly. As it is written, “Depart from evil and do good” (Ps. 37:27). But perseverance is needed for this. Adam, even though he was in Paradise, disobeyed God’s command while Job, who was living on a dung hill, kept it. It seems that God requires from us a good intention, that is, that we should fear him always.’

When Macarius was living in Egypt, one day he came across a man who had brought a donkey to his cell and was stealing his possessions. As though he was a passer-by who did not live there, he went up to the thief and helped him to load the beast, and sent him peaceably on his way, saying to himself, ‘We brought nothing into this world (1 Tim. 6:7) but the Lord gave; as He willed, so it is done: blessed be the Lord in all things.’

30. Oh! upon how elevated a seat of the counsels of the heart does he sit enthroned, who now lies prostrate on the earth with his clothes rent! For because by the judgment of the Lord he had lost all that he had, for the preserving his patience he brought to mind that time, when he had not as yet those things which he had lost, that, whilst he considers that at one time he had them not, he may moderate his concern for having lost them; for it is a high consolation in the loss of what we have, to recall to mind those times, when it was not our fortune to possess the things which we have lost. But as the earth has produced all of us, we not unjustly call her our mother. As it is written, An heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their mother's womb, till the day that they return to the mother of all things. [Ecclus. 40, 1]
Blessed Job then, that he might mourn with patience for what he had lost here, marks attentively in what condition he had come hither. But for the furtherance of preserving patience, with still more discretion he considers, how he will go hence, and exclaims, Naked came lout of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. As though he said, ‘Naked did the earth bear me, when I came upon this scene, naked it will receive me back, when I depart hence. I then who have lost what I had indeed given me, but what must yet have been abandoned, what have I parted with that was my own?’ But because comfort is not only to be derived from the consideration of our creation [conditionis ‘conditoris.’], but also from the justice of the Creator, he rightly adds,
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done. [so V. and lxx.]
31. The holy man, under trial from the adversary, had lost every thing, yet knowing that Satan had no power against him to tempt him, saving by the Lord's permission, he does not say, ‘the Lord hath given, the devil hath taken away,’ but the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away. For perchance it would have been a thing to grieve for, if what his Creator had given him, his enemy had taken from him: but when no other hath taken it away, saving He Who Himself gave it, He hath only recalled what was His own, and hath not taken away what was ours. For if we have from Him all that we make use of in our present life, what cause for grief that by His own decree we are made to surrender, of Whose bounty we have a loan? Nor is he at any time an unfair creditor, who while he is not bound to any set time of restitution, exacts, whenever he will, what he lends out. Whereupon it is well added, As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done; for since in this life we undergo things which we would not, it is needful for us to turn the bias of our will to Him, Who can will nought that is unjust. For there is great comfort in what is disagreeable to us, in that it comes to us by His disposal, to Whom nought but justice is pleasing. If then we be assured that what is just is the Lord's pleasure, and if we can suffer nothing but what is the Lord's pleasure, then all is just that we undergo, and it is great injustice, if we murmur at a just suffering.
32. But since we have heard how the intrepid speaker put forward the vindication of his cause against the adversary, now let us hear how in the end of his speech he extols the Judge with benedictions. It follows, Blessed be the Name of the Lord. See how he concluded all that he felt alight with a blessing on the Lord, that the adversary might both perceive hence, and for his punishment under defeat take shame to himself, that he himself even though created in bliss had proved a rebel to that Lord, to Whom a mortal even under His scourge utters the hymn of glory.
But be it observed, that our enemy strikes us with as many darts as he afflicts us with temptations; for it is in a field of battle that we stand every day, every day we receive the weapons of his temptations. But we ourselves too send our javelins against him, if, when pierced with woes, we answer humbly. Thus blessed Job, when stricken with the loss of his substance and with the death of his children, forasmuch as he turned the force of his anguish into praise of his Creator, exclaiming, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done; blessed be the Name of the Lord: by his humility, struck down the enemy in his pride, and by his patience, laid low the cruel one. Let us never imagine that our combatant received wounds, and yet inflicted none. For whatever words of patience he gave forth to the praise of God, when he was stricken, he as it were hurled so many darts into the breast of his adversary, and inflicted much sorer wounds than he underwent; for by his affliction he lost the things of earth, but by bearing his affliction with humility, he multiplied his heavenly blessings.

59. The mother of our Redeemer, after the flesh, was the Synagogue, from whom He came forth to us, made manifest by a Body. But she kept Him to herself veiled under the covering of the letter, seeing that she neglected to open the eyes of the understanding to the spiritual import thereof. Because in Him, thus veiling Himself with the flesh of an human Body, she would not see God, she as it were refused to behold Him naked in His Divinity. But He ‘came naked out of His mother's womb,’ because when He issued from the flesh of the Synagogue, He came openly manifest to the Gentiles; which is excellently represented by Joseph's leaving His cloak and fleeing. For when the adulterous woman would have used him to no good end, he, leaving his cloak, fled out of the house; because when the Synagogue, believing Him to be simply man, would have bound Him as it were in an adulterous embrace, He too left the covering of the letter to its eyes, and manifested Himself to the Gentiles without disguise for the acknowledgment of the Power of His Divinity. And hence Paul said, But even to this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their hearts [2 Cor. 3, 15]; for this reason, that the adulteress kept the cloak in her own hands, but Him, Whom she wickedly laid hold of, she let go naked. He then Who coming from the Synagogue plainly disclosed Himself to the faith of the Gentiles, ‘came naked out of His mother's womb,’ But does He wholly give her up? Where then is that which the Prophet declares, For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return? [Is. 10, 22] where that which is written, Until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved? [Rom. 11, 25. 26.] The time will be, then, when He will show Himself clearly to the Synagogue also. Yes, the time will doubtless come in the end of the world, when He will make Himself known, even as He is God, to the remnant of His People. Whence it is likewise justly said in this place, and naked shall I return thither. For he ‘returns naked to His mother's womb,’ when, at the end of the world, He, Who being made Man in time is the object of scorn, is revealed to the eyes of His Synagogue as God before all worlds. It proceeds: "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it come to pass; blessed be the Name of the Lord"
60. Our Redeemer, in that He is God, gives all things with the Father; but in that He is Man, He receives at the hands of the Father, as one among all. Therefore let Him say of Judaea, so long as she believed in the mystery of His Incarnation to come, the Lord hath given. Let Him say of her, when she slighted the looked for coming of His Incarnation, the Lord hath taken away. For she was ‘given,’ when in the persons of a certain number she believed what was to be; but she was ‘taken away,’ as the just desert of her blindness, when she scorned to hold in veneration the truths believed by those.
61. But let Him instruct all that believe in Him, that when under scourges they may know how to bless God, in the words that are added, As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done [not in E.V.]; blessed be the Name of the Lord. Whence likewise, as the Gospel is witness, when He is described to be drawing near to His Passion, He is said to have taken bread and given thanks. And so He gives thanks Who is bearing the stripes of the sins of others. And He, Who did nothing worthy of strokes, blesses humbly under the infliction of them, doubtless that He might show from hence what each man ought to do in the chastisement of his own transgressions, if He thus bears with patience the chastisement of the transgressions of others, that He might show hence what the servant should do under correction, if He being equal gives thanks to the Father under the rod.

85. As if the mind when tempted and taken in the powerlessness of its weak condition were to say, ‘Naked I was by grace first begotten in the faith, and naked I shall be saved by the same grace in being taken up into heaven [in assumptione].’ For it is a great consolation to a troubled mind, when, smitten with the assaults of sin, it sees itself as it were stripped of all virtue, to fly to the hope of Mercy alone, and prevent itself being stripped naked in proportion as it humbly thinks itself to be naked and bare of virtue, and though it be perchance bereaved of some virtue in the hour of temptation, yet acknowledging its own weakness, it is the better clad with humility itself, and is stronger as it is laid low than as it was standing, in that it ceases to ascribe to itself without the aid of God whatever it has. And hence it also at once owns with humility the hand of Him Who is both Giver and Judge, saying,
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.
86. Observe how he grew great by the discipline of temptations, who both in the possession of the virtue acknowledges the bounty of the Giver, and in the disorderment of his fortitude, the power of the Withdrawer; which fortitude nevertheless is not withdrawn, but is confounded and loses heart, that the assaulted mind, while it dreads every instant to lose the quality as it seems, being alway made humble, may never lose it.
As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done; Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
87. In this circumstance, viz. that we are assaulted with inward trouble, it is meet that we refer the thing to the judgment of our Creator, that our heart may resound the louder the praises of its Maker, from the very cause that makes it, on being smitten, the more thoroughly to consider the impotency of its frail condition.