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Lent with the Wisdom Literature (Day 40; Holy Monday)

April 14, 2025

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Ecclesiastes 7 (Holy Monday)

A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death, than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for this is the end of everyone, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools; this also is vanity. Surely oppression makes the wise foolish, and a bribe corrupts the heart. Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; the patient in spirit are better than the proud in spirit. Do not be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools. Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Wisdom is as good as an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to the one who possesses it. Consider the work of God; who can make straight what he has made crooked?

On the day of prosperity be joyful, and on the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that will come after them. In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing. Do not be too righteous, and do not act too wise; why should you destroy yourself? Do not be too wicked, and do not be a fool; why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of the one, without letting go of the other; for the one who fears God shall succeed with both. Wisdom gives strength to the wise more than ten rulers that are in a city.

Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning. Do not give heed to everything that people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you; your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others. All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, ‘I will be wise’, but it was far from me. That which is, is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? I turned my mind to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the sum of things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness. I found more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters; one who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. See, this is what I found, says the Teacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum, which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. See, this alone I found, that God made human beings straightforward, but they have devised many schemes.

Commentary

Whoever does not focus attention on perishable goods and does not think highly of them but knows that it is better to be with Christ after death thinks that the day of death is better than the day of birth. The latter is the beginning of many evils; the former, however, the end and termination of evil. Where there is mourning, there is no moral superficiality. Happiness and laughter are avoided; the calamity prohibits it. Sometimes we refrain from appearing happy out of regard for those who mourn and for those who experience harm. In the house of feasting, however, the opposite happens: Dances and songs bring reproof, since they indicate a disorderly life. The ‘house’, however, signifies a condition or an attitude, not a location. The one who goes to the house of mourning knows that everyone dies in the end. Once he knows that he has to die, he will not think about and dedicate his effort to owning something if it is a possession that is lost in death such as wealth, reputation and honour.

One can understand ‘the living’ in the following way: one who lives according to God’s will. Those people are Abraham and his descendants. God has created human beings straightforward, that is, morally perfect without anything crooked or oblique. But they themselves produce many thoughts. Evil, thus, is manifold. There is only one single human form that makes a person like God, but there are many into which he can transform himself. If he is cunning, he has the face of a fox; if he shows a poisonous, dangerous face, he has the face of a snake; if he looks wild, he has the face of a lion; if his face is ungovernable, flattering and desiring pleasures, he has the face of a dog. Generally out of one human being and one form emerge a whole plurality of characters and forms. Thus it is the goal to get rid of all forms – even if some people do not share this opinion – in order to show that he has the face that God created. God knows the reasons for everything that came into being, and he knows why they are hidden. In no way do you have sufficient knowledge of God’s creations. If you take offence at them, this is because you are not reasonable. Watch God’s creatures! What for others is a reason for offence will be for you knowledge of the Creator and of the created. (Didymus the Blind)

Musical Selection

Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadfull, for thou art not soe,

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,

Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.

From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee, much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do goe,

Rest of their bones, and souls deliverie.

Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings and desperate men,

And dost with poyson, warre, and sickness dwell,

And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well

And better than thy stroake; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Collect

All-powerful God,
as often as we grow faint through human weakness,
grant us new life and breath
through the passion and death of your beloved Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen.

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