O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry have no place.
All Commentaries on Job 16:18 Go To Job 16
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
26. It was said to man on his committing sin, Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return; [Gen. 3, 19] and this ‘earth’ does not ‘cover the blood’ of our Redeemer: in that each several sinner taking to himself the price of his redemption makes confession and sings praise, and publishes it to all of his neighbours that he is able. Moreover, ‘earth did not cover His blood,’ in that Holy Church has now preached the mystery of His redemption in all parts of the world. And observe what is added: And let my cry find no place to lie hid in thee. For the very blood of redemption that is taken is itself ‘the cry’ of our Redeemer. Hence Paul too says, And to the Blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better than that of Abel. [Heb. 12, 24] It had been said of the blood of Abel; The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground. [Gen. 4, 10] But ‘the Blood of Jesus speaketh better things than the blood of Abel,’ because the blood of Abel brought the death of his fratricidal brother, but the blood of the Lord won life for His persecutors. So then that the Sacraments of our Lord’s Passion may not be ineffectual in us, we are bound to imitate that which we take, and to preach to others what we adore. For ‘His cry does find a place to lie hid in us,’ if what the mind has been brought to believe the tongue is silent about. But that His cry may not lie hid in us, it remains that each one of us according to his small measure should make known to his neighbours the mystery of his own quickening. It is good to recall the eyes of the interior to the hour of the Lord’s Passion, when the Jews raged against Him in persecution, and the Disciples fled from Him in alarm. For He that appeared to die in the flesh was not in any wise believed to be God.
