Sin And Correction

Beatus homo qui corripitur a Domino. Prima virtus est, ne pepetrari debeant, vitare peccata; secunda autem, saltem perpetrata corrigere. Sed plerumque culpas non solum imminentes minime vitamus, verum etiam nec commissas agnoscimus. Et peccatorum mens tanto altius tenebrescit, quanto nec damnum sua ceacitatis intelligit. Unde fit plerumque divine muneris largitate, ut culpam poena subsequatur, et flagella oculos delinquentis aperiant, quos inter vitia securitas caecabat. Torpens quippe animus percussione tangitur, ut exitetur; quatenus qui statum suae rectitudinis securus perdidit, afflictus consideret quo jacet. Hinc itaque ipsa asperitas correptionis origo fit luminis. Unde et per Paulum dicitur: Omne quod arguitur, a lumine manifestatur, argumentum enim salutis est vis doloris. Hinc est enim quod Salomon ait: Curatio cessare faciet peccata maxima. Hinc iterum dicit: Quem enim diligit Dominus, castigat: flagellat autem omnem filium quem recipit. Hinc voce angelica Dominus ad Joannem loquitur, dicens: Ego quos amo, redarguo et castigo. Hinc Paulus ait: Omnis autem disciplina in praesenti quidem non videtur esse gaudii, sed moeroris; postea autem fructum pacatissimum exercitatis per eam reddit justitiae. Quamvis ergo convenire simul nequeant dolor et beatitudo, recte tamen nunc dicitur, Beatus homo qui corripitur a Domino; quia per hoc, quod peccator dolore correptionis permitur, quandoque ad beatitudinem, quae sine interventu est doloris, eruditur. Sequitur:  'Increpationem ergo Domini ne reprobes.' Quisquis pro culpa percutitur, sed in querela suae percussionis elevatur, increpationem Domini reprobat, quia hanc injuste se perpeti accusat. Qui autem non pro purgatione criminis, sed pro fortitudinis probatione feruntur, cum causas suae percussionis inquirunt, nequaquam increptionem Domini reprobare dicendi sunt, quia in semetipsis satagunt invenire quod nesciunt. Unde et beatus Job ad libertatis verba inter percussionis verbera erumpens, tanto de se rectius judicia ferientis interrogat, quanto in semetipso verius causas passionis ignorat. Eliphaz itaque, quia hunc percussum non probationis examine, sed purgationis aestimavit, dum libere inter flagella loqueretur, reprobasse Dei increpationem credidit. Quem apte etiam haereticorum tenere speciem diximus, qui omne quod sancta Ecclesia recte agitur, apud judicium suum semper ad vitium tortitudinis inflectunt. Quia vero bona intentione ad loquendum ducitur, sed non curat discernere cui loquatur, adhuc supernae dispensationis moderamina praeicando subjungit, dicens: Qui ipse vulnerat, et medetur; percutit, et manus ejus sanabunt. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, Moralia, sive Expositio in Job,  Liber VI Caput XXIII-XXIV  751b-752b Source: Migne PL 75.751b-752b

Blessed the man whom the Lord corrects. 1  The highest virtue is to avoid sins, that they should not be committed, and second to it is at least to correct what has been committed. But for the most part we not only hardly ever avoid sins that threaten but we do not even know them when they have been committed. And the mind of sinners is darkened so deeply, as much as they do not see the injury of their own blindness. Hence it happens that very often, by the largess of the Divine gift, that punishment follows upon fault, and blows open the eyes of the one who errs, who among errors had been secure in blindness. For the torpid soul is touched with a blow, that it be stimulated, that he who has lost, by his security, the state of uprightness, being afflicted may consider why he is thrown down. Thus the very sharpness of the correction becomes the source of light. So it is said by Paul: 'But all things that are proved are made manifest by the light' 2; for proof of salvation is in the force of the pain. Hence Solomon says, 'For healing will make grave sins cease.' 3 And again he says, 'For whom the Lord loves He corrects, He chastises the son whom he receives.' 4 Hence by the voice of the angel the Lord speaks to John, saying, 'Those whom I love, I rebuke and chasten.' 5 Hence Paul says, 'No discipline in the present seems to be joyful, but grievous, yet after it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness for those who are thus exercised ' 6  Although, therefore, grief and happiness can never meet together, yet it is rightly said here, 'Blessed is the man whom the Lord corrects.'  1 For by this, that the sinner is pressed with the pain of correction, he is sometimes educated to blessedness, which knows no interruption of suffering. It follows:   'Therefore do not reprove the chastening of the Lord.' 1   Whoever is struck for a fault and is lifted up to complaining against the blow, 'reproves the chastening of the Lord.' For he accuses Him, that He has done this to him unjustly. Yet they who are struck not for the cleansing of sin but for the testing of their fortitude, when they enquire about the causes of the blow, must by no means be said to reprove the correction of the Lord, for their aim is to discover in themselves what they do not know. Hence blessed Job, breaking out into the voice of liberty, amid the blows of his suffering, the more rightly questions the judgments of Him who brings this on him, the more he is truly ignorant of the causes of his suffering in himself. Thus Eliphaz, as much as he judged that Job was visited not with the trial of testing but of cleansing, when he spoke with freedom amidst the stripes, he thought that he reproved the correction of the Lord. And aptly we have said that this one bears the likeness of heretics, in that whatever is done rightly by the Holy Church is always by their own judgment bent to some fault of crookedness. But since it is with a good intention that Job is led to speak, yet he cares not to discriminate to whom he is speaking, he yet further adds and proclaims the dispensations of the supernal governance, saying,'For He wounds and He heals, He strikes and His hands restore.' 7 Saint Gregory the Great, Moralia, or Commentary on Job, Bk 6 Chaps 23-24 1 Job 5.17 2 Ephes 6.13 3 Eccle 10.4 4 Hebr 12.6 5 Apoc 3.19 6 Heb. 12.11 7 Job 5.18