Lecture 1 — Wonder about divine care

^14:1^ Man, born of woman, living for a short time, is filled with many sorrows,

^14:2^ he who like a flower comes forth and is crushed, and he passes like a shadow; he never rests in the same state.

^14:3^ And you lead him as worthy of you, opening your eyes on someone like this, and you bring him with yourself in judgment.

^14:4^ Who can make clean one conceived as unclean in the womb, if not you alone?

Man born of woman. Here he first explains the frailty of the human condition as to origin when he says, man, born of woman, is like something frail; as to duration when he says, living for a short time; and as to condition when he says, is filled with many sorrows. Here he explains what he said above, do you show your power against the leaf which is driven by the wind? (Job 14:25).

236. Second, he excludes those things in which a man can take glory.

The first among these is the beauty of the body, with which a man abounds in his youth. But this glory is nothing, because it passes quickly like the flower. So he says, who like a flower comes forth and is crushed, easily.

The second is fame, which does not last for a long time, and so he says, and he passes like a shadow. For no trace or memory remains of a shadow which passes.

The third is power and strength with which someone tries to preserve himself and his own things, and against this he says, and he never rests in the same state.

These three things can be referred to the three others which the previous verse treats. For man born of woman is like a flower which comes forth and quickly fades, and he lives for a brief time so that he passes like a shadow whose trace does not remain. Therefore he is filled with many sorrows, so that though at times he might acquire prosperity and joy, he never rests in the same state.

237. Third, he wonders about the divine providence for man. For it seems marvelous that God should have such great care about a thing so fragile and despicable.

Although everything is submitted to divine providence, still God appears to care especially for man in three things.

First, he has given him laws and precepts for living. He touches this when he says, and you lead him as worthy of you, opening your eyes on someone like this, for someone is said to open his eyes on someone when he directs him and considers his ways.

Second, God rewards man for good deeds and punishes him for evil deeds, and he touches this when he says, and bring him with yourself in judgment.

Third, God adorns him with the virtues by which he preserves himself pure against the deformity of sin. He touches this when he says, who can make clean one conceived as unclean in the womb? The seed of man is certainly unclean, not according to nature, but according to the infection of concupiscence. Yet a man conceived from this seed is sometimes proven pure by virtue. As one makes what is cold hot by what is hot in itself, so one makes what is impure pure by what is pure in itself, and so he says then, if not you alone, who are really pure in yourself? For purity and cleanliness are found perfectly only in God, in whom there can be no potentiality or defect. So anything which is clean and pure in any way takes this purity and cleanness from God.