Gregory the Great - Moralia in Job; or Morals on the Book of Job, Vol. 1 (Books 1-10)

Volume 1 of 3. Gregory the Great (pope 590–604) wrote his Moralia in Job, or moral homilies on Job, one of his greatest works, before his election to the See of Peter. Sent as papal envoy to Constantinople, he gathered there a community of ascetics to whom he preached these homilies. In Gregory's reflections, Job is a figure of Christ, who suffered innocently—not for his sins but for the increase of his merits and the salvation of others by love. These homilies are a summa of Christian doctrine, from Creation to final Judgment, from the height of angelic hierarchies to the innermost depths of the human soul. Confident that the Holy Spirit has not idly chosen the words of Scripture, Gregory finds a depth of allegory out of which he draws a brilliant picture of Christ, whose humanity must mark our own and whose Cross is our path to eternal rest. A beautiful meditation on suffering, on the path from fear to love, and on the healing and glorification of the individual soul which, as a memb