You have not given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
All Commentaries on Job 22:7 Go To Job 22
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
8. Heretics in proportion as they hold not the solid substance of truth, so sometimes they busy themselves, that they may appear full of discourse, and against the faith of Catholics they are boastful as of the knowledge of learning; all that they see they seek to draw to them by their wicked discoursings, and by the very same act, whereby they are joining others to themselves for destruction, they think themselves doing something conducive to life. Now we call those ‘weary’ that are worn down under the wearisome load of this world. And hence Truth saith by Himself, Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and will give you rest. Matt. 11, 28] And so whereas heretics never cease to preach their own doctrines, they mock at Holy Church as if for ignorance. Thou hast not given water to the weary, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry. For themselves they think they ‘give water to the weary’ when to persons travailing under their earthly load they supply the cup of their own error. And they look upon it that they themselves have not ‘withholden bread from the hungry,’ in that when questioned even touching things invisible and incomprehensible, they answer with pride and boldness; and they then set themselves down as learned above all men, when they most miserably presume to speak on things unknown. But Holy Church when she sees anyone hungering for that which it would not be for his good to get, either on the one hand if they be things already known to her keeps them back with reserve, or if they appear to be unknown as yet, confesses it with humility; and such she recalls to a sense of well-regulated humility, when she bids everyone of them by her Preacher, not to be wise of himself above that he ought to think, but to think soberly. [Rom. 12, 3] And again, Be not highminded, but fear. [Rom. 11, 20] And again, Seek not out the things that are too deep for thee; neither search the things that are above thy strength. [Ecclus. 3, 21] And again, Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest perchance thou be filled therewith, and vomit it. [Rrov. 25, 16] For to ‘find honey,’ is to taste the sweetness of holy intelligence. Which is eaten enough of then, when our perception according to the measure of our faculty is held tight under control. For he is ‘filled with honey, and vomits it,’ who in seeking to dive deeper than he has capacity for loses that too from whence he might have derived nourishment. And so, seeing that Holy Church forbids it to feeble minds to dive into deep truths, it is said to blessed Job, And thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.
9. And her greatness also because heretics envy, because she keeps the companies of people every where in the true faith, when they meet with a season of earthly prosperity, they launch out against her in terms of pride, and by their upbraiding disclose how greatly before they secretly envied her power.
