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Lent with the Wisdom Literature (Day 37)

April 10, 2025

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Ecclesiastes 2 (Fifth Thursday of Lent)

I said to myself, ‘Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.’ But again, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, ‘It is mad’, and of pleasure, ‘What use is it?’ I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine my mind still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, until I might see what was good for mortals to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house; I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and delights of the flesh, and many concubines. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the one do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. The wise have eyes in their head, but fools walk in darkness. Yet I perceived that the same fate befalls all of them. Then I said to myself, ‘What happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I been so very wise?’ And I said to myself that this also is vanity. For there is no enduring remembrance of the wise or of fools, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How can the wise die just like fools? So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind. I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me —and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labours under the sun, because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity. There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God; for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Commentary

Solomon condemns pleasures as futile. For he says, I said in my heart, ‘Come hither, I will test you in pleasure and also in good, and this too is vanity. For he did not give himself to this kind of experience straight away or slide into partaking of pleasures without having tasted the austere and more devout life. Rather, after training himself in austerity and achieving in his character the severity and determination through which the lessons of wisdom come most readily, he then descends to things considered agreeable to the senses. He does this not because he is drawn down to them by passion but in order to investigate whether sensual experience makes any contribution to our knowledge of the Good. That is why he makes his own what he had originally regarded as alien, laughter. He calls laughter dizziness, which is equivalent in meaning to ‘frenzy’ or ‘madness’: for what else would anyone properly call laughter? It is neither speech nor activity directed to any end but an unseemly loss of bodily control. But I, he says, sought the true Good, which is equally good at any age and every time of life, and which never reaches fullness. Appetite for it and enjoying it are exactly matched, and longing flourishes together with enjoyment and is not limited by the attainment of what is desired. The more it delights in the Good, the more desire flames up with delight: the delight matches the desire, and at each stage of life it is always a delight to those who partake of it. This, as I understand it, is the true Good, the thing Solomon sought to see, it is none other than the work of faith. This is the good work, which I pray may be done in us too, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Solomon therefore teaches what human wisdom is, which you also calls counsel. But the real wisdom and counsel, on my reckoning, is none other than the Wisdom that is conceived of as before the universe. It is that wisdom by which God made all things, as the Prophet says, by wisdom you made all things and Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, by which all things came to be and were set in order. (St. Gregory of Nyssa)

Musical Selection (Giacomo Carissimi)

Hinc, mortales, ediscite quod vana mundi gaudia, inanes labores, fugaces honores, mendaces favores: omnia vanitas et umbra sunt.

Thus learn, o mortals, that vain are the delights, and void the labours of this world, that honours pass away, and false are favours: all is vanity and shadow.

Sceptra, coronae, purpurae, pompae, triumphi, laureae, decora, ornatus, gloriae, et lusus, et deliciae, et fastus, et divitiae: omnia vanitas et umbra sunt.

Sceptres, crowns, purple, triumphs, victories, honours, magnificence, glory, and games, and delights, and splendour, and riches: all is vanity and shadow.

Omnia vanitas et umbra sunt. Ubi sunt praeclari reges qui dederunt orbi leges, ubi gentium ductores, civitatum conditores? Pulvis sunt et cineres.

All is vanity and shadow. Where are the noble kings that gave laws to the world? where the leaders of nations, the founders of cities? They are dust and ashes.

Ubi septem sapientes et scientias adolentes, ubi retores discordes, ubi artifices experti? Pulvis sunt et cineres.

Where are the seven wise men, and they that honour wisdom? where the quarrelsome masters of eloquence, and the able artists? They are dust and ashes.

Ubi fortes sunt gigantes, tanto robore praestantes, ubi invicti bellatores, barbarorum domitores? Pulvis sunt et cineres.

Where are the mighty giants famous for their strength? where the invincible warriors that subdued the barbarians? They are dust and ashes.

Ubi heroum inclita proles, ubi vastae urbium moles, ubi [Athenae] ubi Carthago, veterisque Thebae imago? Solum nomen superest.

Where the generation of heroes? where the imposing cities, where Athens, where Carthage, and where the image of the ancient Thebes? Only their names remain.

Ubi dictatorum gloriae, ubi consulum victoriae, ubi laureae triumphales, ubi decus immortale romanorum honorium? Solum nomen superest.

Where the dictators' glory, where the consuls' victories, where the triumphal laurels, where the immortal dignity of the Roman honours? Only their names remain.

Heu, nos miseros! Sicut aquae dilabimur et sicut folium quod vento rapitur, deficimus, eripimur.

Alas, woe to us! We flow away like water, and end up blown as leaves in the wind.

Votis decipimur, tempore fallimur, morte deludimur; quae nos anxii quaerimus, quae solliciti petimus, omnia vanitas et umbra sunt. Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas.

We are deceived by our wishes, beguiled by time, deluded by death; all things that we eagerly seek for are vanity and shadow. Vanity of vanities: all is vanity.

Collect

Do not withhold your presence, Lord our God,
from those who call upon you,
but look with tender care
on all who hope in your mercy.
Cleanse them from the stain of sin,
that they may persevere in holiness of life
and receive the inheritance you have promised.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen.

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