The following quotes are taken from:
Gregory the Great, Commentary on Job
(Ancient Bible Commentary in English; trans. John Litteral; Ashland, Ky.:
Litteral’s Christian Library Publications, 2014)
Book 15:
[l]
56. When the wicked man is seen
in power, when he is utterly without check or restraint in his acts of
oppression and violence, by the imaginations of the weak he is accounted too
well ballasted, and as rooted in this world. But when the sentence of the strict
Judge cometh, ‘all the wicked shall be as chaff before the wind,’ because, if I
may say so, all they are by the sudden blast way of discernment. Since original
sin we derive from our parents, and, except by the grace of Baptism we be
loosed from it, we bear with us the sins of our very parents, seeing that
surely we are still one with them. And so ‘He visiteth the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children,’ when on account of the guilt of the parent, the
soul of the offspring is polluted by original sin. And again He does not ‘visit
the sins of the fathers upon the children,’ in that when we are freed from
original guilt by Baptism, we no longer own the sins of our fathers, but those
which we have ourselves been guilty of. Which however may be understood in
another way as well, in that whosoever imitates the wicked ways of a bad
father, is bound in his sins also. But whosoever does not follow the wickedness
of his parent, is never burthened by his offence. And hence it comes to pass
that the bad son of a bad father not only pays for his own sins, which he has
added; but the sins of his father as well; seeing that to the evil practices of
his father, which he is not ignorant that the Lord is angry with, he is not
afraid to add yet further his own wickedness too. And it is meet that he who
being liable to a strict Judge does not fear to follow the ways of a wicked
parent, should be compelled in this present life to pay for even his parent’s
misdeeds. And hence it is there said, The soul of the father is Mine, and
the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die, because
in the flesh by the sin of the father the sons too are sometimes ruined. But
now that original sin has been done away, they are not bound in the soul by the
parent’s wickedness. For how is it that little children are very often seized
by devils, saving that the flesh of the son is mulcted in punishment of the
father? For the bad father is stricken in his own person, and is too stubborn
to feel the force of the blow. Very often he is stricken in his children, so as
to be more sharply stung, and the sorrow of the father is rendered to the flesh
of the children, to the end that the evil heart of the parent may be chastened
by inflictions on the children. But when not little children, but such as are
now more advanced in years, are stricken by the parent’s sin, what else are we
given clearly to understand, but that they likewise pay the penalties of those
whose deeds they have imitated? And hence it is rightly said, Even unto the
third and fourth generation. For whereas it is possible that ‘even to the
third and fourth generation,’ children may witness the life of their father,
which they copy, vengeance extends even to them, who witnessed what they might
mischievously imitate. (pp 307-8)
Book 23:
8. Since then the human race was
oppressed by the innumerable sufferings of this life in the flesh, but both the
guilt and punishment of our sin were blotted out by the coming of our Redeemer,
let it be said of redeemed man, His flesh is consumed with punishments; let
him return to the days of his youth. As if he were to say, Through the
punishment of his mortality, he is cast down, as it were, by the age of his old
condition; let him return to the days of his youth; that is, let him be renewed
in the integrity of his former life, that he may not remain in the state in
which he has fallen, but return on his redemption to that for the enjoyment of
which he was created. For Holy Scripture is frequently accustomed to put youth
for newness of life. Whence it is said to the Bridegroom on his approach, The
young damsels have loved Thee: [Cant. 1, 3] that is, the souls of the
Elect, renewed by the grace of Baptism, which do not yield to the practices of
the old life, but are adorned by the conversation of the new man. For he in
truth was bewailing the age of the old man which was wasting away in the midst
of sins, who says, I have become old amongst all mine enemies: [Ps. 6,
7] and some one also on the other hand, advising a person to rejoice in virtue,
says, Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth. [Eccles. 11, 9] As though he
were saying, Let each man who is strong rejoice in his renewal; that is, let
him place his joy not in the pleasures of his old life, but in the virtue of
his new conversation. But since we are brought back to this strength of new
life, not by our own powers, but by the mediation of the Redeemer, let the
Messenger say, in interceding for this man under the rod, Let him return to
the days of his youth. And because, as our Redeemer intercedes to the
Father in our behalf, we ourselves shake off the torpor of our former life, and
are inflamed with a thirst for prayer, it is well added of ransomed man, Ver.
26. He shall pray unto God, and He will he favourable unto him (pp.
469-70)
Book 33:
47. For He wished to change the
expression, and, in another phrase, to call these his ‘teeth,’ whom He had
above called ‘gates.’ For false preachers are his ‘gates,’ because they open
the entrance to perdition. They are his ‘teeth,’ because they break down from
the solidity of truth those whom they seize in error. For as by the teeth of
Holy Church we understand those who crush by their preachings the hardness of
sinners, (whence it is said to her by Solomon, Thy teeth as flocks of sheep
that have been shorn, coming up from the washing; [Cant. 4, 2] and they are
deservedly compared to shorn and washed sheep, because when assuming an
innocent life they laid aside the old fleeces of their former conversation in
the laver of Baptism,) so also the teachers of errors are typified by the teeth
of this Leviathan. Because they mangle with their bite the life of the
reprobate, and offer them, when withdrawn from the integrity of truth, in the
sacrifice of falsehood. Their preaching might easily be despised by their
hearers, but the additional terror of worldly powers exalts it in the judgment
of men. (p. 670)
