Judith And The Elders

Et nunc, fratres, quoniam vos estis presbyteri in populo Dei, et ex vobis pendet anima illorum, ad eloquium vestrum corda illorum erigite, ut memores sint quia tentati sunt patres nostri, ut probarentur si vere colerent Deum suum. Memores esse debenet quomodo pater noster Abraham tentatus est, er per multas tribulationes probatus Dei amicus effectus est. Sic Isaac, sic Jacob, sic Moyses, et omnes qui placuerunt Deo, per multas tribulationes transierunt fideles, Illi autem, qui tentationes non suspecperunt cum timore Domini, et impatientiam suam, et improperium murmurationis suae contra Dominum protulerunt, exterminati sunt ab exterminatore, et a serpentibus perierunt. Praeteritorum principum fortia gesta, praesentium sunt documenta salubria. Unde Judith summos patriarchas gentis Israelitarum, hoc est, Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, et primum ducem eorum Moysen in exemplum fidei ac patientiae narratione sua introducit; et e contrario impios murmuratores et quaerulosos in testimonium pusillanimitatis et impatientiae suae exhibuit, ut ex bonis utile nobis ad imitandum sumamus exemplum, et ex malis discamus pravitatis suae opus vitare nefarium, ne forte exterminii illorum patiamur tormentum. Unde adhuc subditur: Et nos ergo non ulciscamur nos pro his quae patimur, sed reputantes peccatis nostris haec ipsa minora esse supplicia, flagella Domini, quibus quasi servi corripimur, non ad perditionem nostram evenisse credamus. Haec est enim via veritatis, ut in flagellis Domini humiliemus animas nostras, et patientiam habarere studeamus, reputantes peccatis nostris, quae juste patimur, imo etiam minorem meritis nostris esse vindictam, sed per bonitatem Dei nobis as sufferendum temperatam credamus, qui vult omnes homines salvos esse, et ad agnitionem veritatis pervenire. Miseretur omnium, et nihil odit eorum quae fecit, dissimulans peccata hominum propter poenitentiam, et parcens illis propter magnam misericordiam, quia ipse solus est Deus noster. Et dixerunt illi Ozias et presbyteri: Omnia quae locuta es, vera sunt, et non est in sermonibus tuis ulla reprehensio. Nunc ergo ora pro nobis, quoniam mulier sancta es et timens Deum. Nulla reprehensio est in sermonibus Judith, sed omnia vera sunt quae leguntur. Quia omnia quae Ecclesia catholica in confessione verae fidei, seu in doctrina sanctae religionis profet, laudabilia sunt valde et absque ulla reprehensione. Cujus merito et dignitate credendum est singulos quoque fideles apud Domini clementiam multum adjuvari. Quod ita digne fit, si unusquisque curet, ut sicut probavit verum esse, quod Ecclesia docet, ita actibus imitetur, quod ipsa honestis exemplis persuadet, de quo et subditur. Et dixit illis: Sicut quod potui loqui, Dei esse cognoscitis, ita quod facere disposui, probate si ex Deo est, et orate ut firmum faciat Deus consilium meum. Stabitis vos ad portam nocte ista, et ego exeam cum abra mea; et orate ut, sicut dixistis, in diebus quinque respiciat Dominus populum suum Israel. Commendat Judith presbyteris portam, quia sacerbotibus Christi sancta Ecclesia sollicitam castrorum Dei commendat custodiam, ut pervigili intentione ac solerti cura per arma orationum ea munire, et contra hostium insidias illaesa servare studeant. Rabanus Maurus, Expositio in Librum Judith, Caput VIII Source: Migne PL 109.362b-363b

And now, brothers, because you are elders among the people of God, and their souls hang from you, lift up their hearts with your speech, so that they might remember our fathers were tested so that they be proved if they truly worshipped their God. They should be mindful of how our father Abraham was tested and how through many trials he was made an approved friend of God. So Isaac, so Jacob, so Moses, and all who have been pleasing to God, passed faithfully through many trials. But they who did not receive their tribulations in the fear of God and were impatient and murmured improperly against God, they were exterminated by the exterminator, and perished by serpents. 1 The great deeds of the foremost men of the past are wholesome examples for the present. Whence Judith introduces the patriarchs of the Israelite people, that is, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and their first leader Moses, as an example of faith and patience. And on the contrary she exhibited the impious murmurers and querelous folk as a witness of weakness and impatience, so that from the good we take up for ourselves an example to imitate, and from the wicked we learn to avoid the works of depravity of the vile, lest we suffer the torments of those exterminated. Whence she continues: And therefore we are not punished in these things we suffer, but for the repudiance of our sins are these little trials and whips of the Lord, by which we are corrected as a servant, lest we think ourselves to have come to our ruin. For this is the way of truth, that by the whips of the Lord our souls are humbled and we are zealous to maintain endurance, repudiating our sins, for which we justly suffer, not indeed that the least punishment matches what we merit, but that through the benevolence of God we believe our suffering to have been tempered, He who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth. 2 He is merciful to all, and He hates nothing which He has made, dismissing the sins of men through penance, and sparing them on account of His great mercy, because He alone is our God. And Ozias and the elders said to her: All that you have said is true, and there is nothing reprehensible in your speech. Now therefore pray for us, because you are a holy woman, and fear God. There is nothing reprehensible in the speech of Judith but everything said is true. For everything which the Catholic Church proclaims in the confession of the faith and in the teaching of the sacred religion is extremely praiseworthy and lacks all reprehension. For which with merit and dignity it must be that each and everyone of the faithful is aided by the great mercy of the Lord. By which it is thus right, if a man will care for it, that as what the Church teaches has been proved true, so its deeds are imitated, which with upright example persuades. Concerning which it is written below: And she said to them: As I was able to speak, that you know it to be of God, what I am resolved to do, test and see if it is from God and pray that God makes my counsel firm. Stand at the gate this night, and I shall go out with my handmaid, and pray that, as you have said, in five days the Lord looks on His people Israel. Judith commends the elders to the gate which is the holy Church of Christ, commending the priests to the careful guardianship of the camps of God, that with vigilant attention and sagacious care, through the arms of prayer, they set a wall about them and strive to protect them against the harmful plots of the enemy. Rabanus Maurus, Commentary On Judith, Chap 8 1 Judith 8.24-26 Vulg 2 1 Tim 2.4