When a person has attained this knowledge, he condemns pleasure as vanity. Ecclesiastes next states I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will prove you with mirth, and behold, you have good things, and behold, this also is vanity.’ He does not immediately submit himself to such an experience nor has he tasted a more severe, solemn life to obliterate pleasure; rather, Ecclesiastes experienced such things and pursued a sober, constant course of action which yields wisdom for those who pursue it. Ecclesiastes shrinks away from sense delights because passion does not attract him to these vanities; he believes that knowledge of the true good confers perception to anyone faithful to it. From the beginning the enemy indulges in laughter and mirth and calls passion anything mad or deranged. Anything else is rightly called laughter for it is irrational and has no purpose such as merriment which is unbecoming to the body such as agitated breathing, commotion of one’s entire body, facial contortions, bearing of teeth, gums and palate, twisting of neck and the uncontrollable breaking of a strained voice accompanied by short breaths of air. What can this be except madness?

Those who live under discipline should avoid very carefully even such intemperate action as is commonly regarded lightly. Indulging in unrestrained and immoderate laughter is a sign of intemperance, of a want of control over one’s emotions, and of failure to repress the soul’s frivolity by a stern use of reason. It is not unbecoming, however, to give evidence of merriment of soul by a cheerful smile, if only to illustrate that which is written: A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance,^[1] but raucous laughter and uncontrollable shaking of the body are not indicative of a well-regulated soul, or of personal dignity, or self-mastery. This kind of laughter Ecclesiastes also reprehends as especially subversive of firmness of soul in the words: Laughter I counted error, and again, As the crackling of thorns burning under a pot, so is the laughter of fools.^[2] Moreover, the Lord appears to have experienced those emotions that are of necessity associated with the body, as well as those that betoken virtue, as, for example, weariness and compassion for the afflicted; but, so far as we know from the story of the gospel, he never laughed. On the contrary, he even pronounced those unhappy who are given to laughter.^[3]

Let your rejoicing of the heart in God be calm and moderate, in accordance with the words of the apostle: Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice.^[1] In another place, he says, The fruit of the spirit is joy.^[2] Such happiness does not disturb the mind with the base act of laughter but lifts the soul to the place of rest that is above where you can hear Enter into the joy of your master.^[3] One can usually tell what is in a nun’s heart by her laughter. A nun would not laugh impudently if her heart were pure. A man’s face is the mirror of his heart: a nun does not laugh wantonly unless she is wanton in her heart. Out of the abundance of the heart, says the Lord, the mouth speaks;^[4] likewise, the face of a nun laughs from the abundance of a vain heart. See what is written about this: Of laughter I said: ‘Mad!’ and of mirth: ‘What good does this do?’ And again, in the same place: Let laughter be mingled with sadness, and the end of joy may be sorrow.^[5] And the Lord says, Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.^[6] And the apostle spoke the truth to those insanely joyful: Let your laughter be turned into mourning.^[7] Flee laughter, therefore, sister, as a sin and change temporal joy into mourning, that you may be blessed if you grieve that you are a sojourner in the world; for those who mourn, according to God, are blessed and shall be comforted.

I, however, said Ecclesiastes, have sought the good proper to youth and every other stage of life. We are never satiated; rather, appetite is common to us all while passion flowers with enjoyment and is not circumscribed by the attainment of its desire. But inasmuch as we perceive the good in pleasure, any delight sets desire aflame, for pleasure is united to desire and is always attractive to each stage of our growth. Neither is the good associated with instability; it provides instruction and is a model in both prosperous and calamitous situations whether they occur at night or day, travelling, on the sea, at work or rest, ruling or serving or in any of life’s circumstances. Neither does the good suffer diminution or grown in anything which may befall us whether it happens to be harmful or beneficial. In my opinion this is the true good which Solomon seeks and which men do under the sun while they are alive. For me it is nothing more than the work of faith common to all men who wish to have it abide throughout their entire lives. This is the good work done in us in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

It is not the acuity of the mind but rather the disposition of the soul, being employed beneficially or shamefully in making use of the gift, which is to be praised or condemned.

But if from personal experience Ecclesiastes condemns the apparent existence [of vanity] to make us avoid a similar situation, or if he freely rejects the enjoyment coming from pleasure in order to diligently train his senses through unpleasant experiences, let us willingly pay attention to his words and draw our own conclusions. We will now respond to anyone who claims that Ecclesiastes’ experience results in pleasure. Persons who traverse the sea and explore its depths in the hope of finding pearls exert themselves in profitable labor, not in pleasure. If Solomon resembles these men and devotes himself to fishing, he becomes submerged in pleasure; he is not filled with sea salt which to me represents pleasure but seeks that which is profitable for his mind in these depth.

Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity. Hear also what the prophet says, He heaps up riches and knows not who shall gather them.^[1] Such is vanity of vanities, your splendid buildings, your vast and overflowing riches, the herds of slaves that bustle along the public square, your pomp and vainglory, your high thoughts and your ostentation. For all these are vain; they came not from the hand of God but are of our own creating. But why then are they vain? Because they have no useful end. Riches are vain when they are spent upon luxury; but they cease to be vain when they are dispersed and given to the needy.^[2]

Hear what Solomon says, who knew the present world by actual experience. I built houses, I planted vineyards, I made gardens, and orchards and pools of water. I gathered also silver and gold. I got myself men singers and women singers, and flocks and herds. There was no one who lived in greater luxury or higher glory. There was no one so wise or so powerful, no one who saw all things so succeeding to his heart’s desire. What then? He had no enjoyment from all these things. What after all does he say of it himself? Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Vanity not simply but superlatively. Let us believe him, and lay hold on that in which there is no vanity, in which there is truth; and what is based upon a solid rock, where there is no old age or decline but all things bloom and flourish, without decay, or waxing old, or approaching dissolution. Let us, I beseech you, love God with genuine affection, not from fear of hell but from desire of the kingdom. For what is comparable to seeing Christ? Surely nothing! What to the enjoyment of those good things? Surely nothing! Well may there be nothing [comparable]; for eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him.^[1]

If one wants to understand houses as good deeds, then every good deed is the house of its owner. Those who hear the words of Jesus and do them . . . build their foundation on a rock.^[1] Since virtue as a whole is one, one who strives after it builds one house, establishing it upon the rock, upon God’s unbreakable Word, that is, upon Christ.

Serve God with tears, that you may be able to wash away your sins. I know that many mock us, saying, Shed tears. Therefore it is a time for tears. I know also that they are disgusted, who say, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.^[1] Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. It is not I that say it, but he who had had the experience of all things says thus: I built for me houses, I planted vineyards, I made me pools of water, [I had] men servants and women servants. And what then after all these things? Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Let us mourn therefore, beloved, let us mourn in order that we may laugh indeed, that we may rejoice indeed in the time of unmixed joy. For with this joy [here] grief is altogether mingled, and never is it possible to find it pure. But that is simple and undeceiving joy: it has nothing treacherous, nor any admixture.

We correctly assume that the text [Ecclesiastes] offers further elucidation to what we have just read, that is, mental incoherence and the indignity of drunkenness. I enlarged my work, built my houses to which Ecclesiastes adds I planted my vineyards. The words I enlarged and what follows commonly mean abundance. The text does not mean the expansion of personal needs by the planting of vines. I planted my vineyards, that is, I have provided material to burn fuel through the increase of pleasures because my mind sank low just as strong drink covers the mind with earth. I planted my vines. I have not exercised self-control, Ecclesiastes says, like the drunken Noah because this lovely plant is both an object of pity and ridicule after it is stripped. The more well-disposed sons of Noah pitied their father’s indecency while others laughed and ridiculed him. Vineyards contain an entire list of passions which are aggravated by wine, for who does not know that an immoderate use of wine fuels undiscipline? It includes a multitude of pleasures, youthful outrage, unbecoming old age, disgrace for women, a drug for madness, insanity, obnoxiousness for the soul, death to the mind and alienation from virtue. Drunkenness produces unreasonable laughter and crying, spontaneous tears, hollow boasting, irrational fear, indifference to fear, no reason for arrogance, thoughtless generosity and the promise of unfulfilled work. We may omit further unbecoming behavior such as indecent drowsiness, drunken stupor, unsteady feet and the twisting of one’s neck which cannot remain steady. What kind of abomination makes a person commit incest with one’s daughter? How was Lot deceived to perpetrate a deed of which he was unaware?^[1] What new names were mysteriously given to those children? How did the mothers of such a polluted birth become sisters of their own children? How did a son have both a father and grandfather? Did not wine, which makes the mind irrational, cause this tragedy of disobedience? Did not inebriation form the subject of this story and its excesses contribute to the invention of fables?

With reference to the natural sense, you find it said in Ecclesiastes, I made for myself pools of water to water from them a flourishing woodland. And do not be concerned that he said pools instead of a well, because Moses said the Well of Room-enough. For the man who has transcended this world with a pious mind is freed of all care and anxieties. There Ecclesiastes says pools with reason, for he sees that there is no abundance under the sun,^[1] but if anyone wishes to abound, let him abound in Christ.^[2] There remains for us the well in the mystical sense, and we find it in the Canticle of Canticles, where the Scripture says, the fountain of gardens, the well of living water which runs with a strong stream from Lebanon.^[3] Indeed if you pursue the depth of the mysteries, the well appears to you to be mystical wisdom set in the deep, as it were.

Among those things he includes is an expensive home, many vineyards, beautiful gardens, pools and orchards, do we find a person who regards himself as lord over his fellow man? I obtained servants, maidens, servants born to me in my house. Do you see here a pride which makes false pretensions? Such words as these rise up against God. As prophecy has told us,^[1] all things serve [God] whose power is over them. As for the person who appropriates to himself what belongs to God and attributes to himself power over the human race as if he were its lord, what other arrogant statement transgressing human nature makes this person regard himself as different from those over whom he rules? . . . You have forgotten the limit of your authority which consists in jurisdiction over brutish animals. Scripture says that man shall rule birds, beasts, fish, four-footed animals and reptiles.^[2] How can you transgress the servitude bestowed upon you and raise yourself against man’s freedom by stripping yourself of the servitude proper to beasts? . . . Man, who was created as lord over the earth, you have put under the yoke of servitude as a transgressor and rebel against the divine precept. You have forgotten the limit of your authority which consists in jurisdiction over brutish animals. . . . He who knows human nature says that the world is not an adequate exchange for man’s soul. When the Lord of the earth bought man, he acquired nothing more precious. He will then proclaim this surpassing possession along with the earth, island, sea and everything in them. What is the deposit God puts down? What will he receive from the contract by which he has received possession? . . . How can you who are equal in all things have superiority so that as man, you consider yourself as man’s ruler and say I have servants and maidens as if they were goats or cattle? When Ecclesiastes said that I have servants and maidens he also speaks of his prosperity in flocks and herds: I also had abundant possessions of flocks and herds, both of which were subject to his authority.

In many places of the divine teaching the Spirit and spiritual things are expressed by the image of gold, the spoken word and its virtue by the image of silver. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver,^[1] that is, his spoken word and everything which he teaches by this spoken word. In the same way the following saying is to be understood: The promises^[2] of the Lord are promises that are pure, silver refined in a furnace on the ground.^[3] But the spirit is gold.

What is more harmful than gold mixed with earth in those locations where the Creator had originally placed it? What is more advantageous for you than the earth’s bounty which the Creator has made? Do not fruit trees contribute to your nourishment? Then why do you violate the bounds of authority? Show what the Creator has bestowed upon you such as mining, digging, burning and gathering what you have not scattered. This is not an accusation against gathering metal from the earth to manufacture money but since the mind cannot be free of avarice, Ecclesiastes adds The special treasures of kings and princes. Kings gather wealth from provinces, a clear indication that they impose burdens, collect taxes and take money from their subjects. And so Ecclesiastes says that he gathers gold and silver. But whether or not this is true, I know that a great benefit lies in store for the person who collects such material possessions. Let us exchange neither a mina, drachma or talent with avaricious persons; instead, let us hasten to turn everything into gold. As soon as possible let us exchange the earth, sand, mountains plains and vales for this material. What contribution do these have for happiness? If one sees in the universe what he now beholds on a small scale, how can such wealth benefit the soul or body? How can gold make a person wise, ingenious, contemplative, skilled, dear to God, pure, lacking passion and free from evil? Or if this is not the case, what good is there in being strong in body or in seeing one’s life prolonged for many years and free from illness and harm? However, no one is so vain nor inattentive to human nature to realize that these benefits are available for men even though a great amount of money is available for everyone. We now observe many wealthy persons living pitiful lives; if it were not for people capable of healing them, they would not deem life worth living. If neither body nor soul benefits from our opinion of gold’s abundance, then how much more futile is it to prove gold’s value to persons who possess it! For what material advantage is our lack of taste, smell, hearing or the sense of touch? As for me, let no one offer food or clothing in exchange for gold. The person who gives bread or clothing for gold exchanges a benefit for something useless in order to live, whereas anyone who takes nourishing food instead of gold lives. What profit, advice, lesson, warning or consolation for bodily pains can we derive from such material aggrandizement? A greedy person counts money, stores it up, signs documents, seals them, denies requests and swears falsely to another unfaithful person. Such is his happiness, the goal of his efforts and pleasure, as long as prosperity fuels his false oaths.

Is there any beautiful object worth pursuing which brings neither health to the body nor relief to pain? And what about deceived persons who cling to gold with their whole heart even though such possessions trouble their consciences? What do they promise themselves when they have something of so great a value? If they could change gold’s substance, would they also desire to change their humanity into gold, a substance which lacks reason, intelligence and sensation as well as being pale in color, heavy, speechless and without soul and feeling? I do not think they would choose these things nor crave after gold. If people of sound mind curse the properties of inanimate nature, what insanity makes them commit murder and steal to possess such a useless object? Not only do they carry this out, but they fail to see how it differs from the fruit [tokos] of evil thoughts, robbery or murder. How does a burglar differ from other robbers when he establishes himself as lord by committing murder or when he possesses what does not belong to him through usury [tokos]? . . . Anyone who forcefully takes or steals provisions is a violent and rapacious person, but the person who reveals in public the injustice he committed in contracts and so bears bitter witness to the distress it caused and who acknowledges his transgression is loving, kind, a guardian and the like. Gain which results from stealing is called theft, a euphemism for the bitter deprivation of a debtor. Such miserable persons are indeed despicable: I collected for myself both silver and gold, but a wise person learns from what Ecclesiastes has listed and enumerated. In this way we may learn from his experience of the need to guard against evil before its assault and not to be associated with thieves and harmful beasts by taking heed of such dangers before they occur.

As the choir directors assign a place and a pitch to each male and female member of the choir so that a harmony of sound emerges, so those who sing to God and do so in harmony have the Savior himself as choir director. Or the [choir director could also be the] wise man, who here is Solomon, if we understand him in his role as wise man.

The wise person always finds himself increasing when he prospers. But in life, it is the last and the first thing to reach perfection. In Scripture it is said, When human beings have finished, they are just beginning.^[1] Of course, even if human beings reach the perfection possible in this life, still, as it is said, We know only in part.^[2] In the activity of increasing there is always something virtuous. . . . [The prophets and Moses] prophesied what Jesus would do and teach. But Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. The actualization of potential-ities is always an increase. These prepared the way, but he has perfected the way when he de-clared about himself: I am the way, the truth.^[3] And he says to his disciples: Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.^[4] In this you see that Jesus’ disciples had more righteousness than the previous ones.

In the literal sense the following is meant: If I desired something among the things in the visible world, I did not keep my eyes from them. I got everything that I longed for. John says in his letter: The desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches comes not from the Father but from the world.^[1] Even if they do not come from the Father as the gifts of grace and of the Spirit, they are nevertheless from God. Desire for visible things, however, should not be consuming but should instead be appropriate to that which is desired.

Heart does not here signify the organ but reason. In a different passage [we read]: Blessed are the pure in heart.^[1] This means with regard to reason. And: Listen to me, you stubborn of heart.^[2] The heart thus understood does not need to be kept from pleasure. It derives pleasure from appropriate views and meditations based on knowledge. By knowledge I mean knowledge that is in accordance with God.

As is well known, the person who toils for something in his heart suffers if he does not succeed with it. Ecclesiastes thus wants to say: I did not fail in any of the things I hoped for in my toil. Further: The person who strives for knowledge and pursues virtue toils.. . . The person who toils for the things that are useful for the soul and that adorn the inner person says about himself: I found pleasure in all my toil.

They nourish their hearts in self-indulgence who, according to the word of Ecclesiastes, do not prevent their heart from enjoying every wish and from delighting itself in the things which they have prepared. And they count it their due if they themselves make use of their own labors, having no care for the support and solace of the poor.

My hands are busy and tools fit for work. They toil and are active. And I saw that all that has been created by these visible hands and their activities, was vanity. . . . This kind of toil is to be rejected indeed—it is vanity. And still, most human beings act vainly. Ecclesiastes counts himself among these people; he is himself a human being. I said it already: No one who talks against wealth is heard if he is poor himself. But one who teaches this needs to have experienced all these human things himself. A teaching thus only reaches its goal and is successful if he who delivers it is acquainted with what he is rejecting. He thereby shows that he himself is able to handle them in an appropriate way.

A person who is enlightened by the sun of righteousness is not under it but in it. Thus it is said in the Gospel: The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father,^[1] not under the sun. If a person says about himself that he is a Christian and enlightened by the true light, by the sun of righteousness, and still concentrates his actions on earthly things and strives after them (and we all are for the most part like these people) this person is under the sun. If he is under the sun in this way, he has no gain. Even if he quotes much from Scripture but does not act accordingly, he has no gain.

When tracing formless letters in water, this act of writing only has existence while we perform it because our hand always follows the water’s surface and smoothes over the impressions just made. Our exertions and energy on behalf of pleasure are similar. Once the action ceases, pleasure is blotted out and nothing remains; neither do those persons who have experienced pleasure have any trace of it. Such is the meaning of Ecclesiastes’ words when he says that nothing remains under the sun for those who labor, for their end is vanity.

He teaches human wisdom, namely, the following of true wisdom and presents those things which have substance and are not subject to vanity. Indeed, this is the summit of human wisdom. In my opinion true wisdom and counsel are simply another kind of wisdom which provides for creation by which God makes all things. As the prophet says, You have made all things in wisdom.^[1] However, Christ is the power wisdom of God in whom all things are made and ordained.^[2] . . . After I have seen these things, Ecclesiastes says, and judged in a scale being with non-being, I discovered the difference between wisdom and foolishness as when I had compared light with darkness. It seems to me that this example is a favorable judgment for that which is beautiful. Because darkness has no substance while light does (if nothing obstructs the sun’s rays, we have no darkness), this example shows that evil does not exist by itself but is a deprivation of the good, while the good always remains fully itself and is not preceded by deprivation. However, anything contrary to the good lacks substance; it cannot exist by itself nor be complete because evil is a deprivation, not a substance. Therefore the difference between light and darkness, wisdom and foolishness, is similar. ^[1]

And what is the use of understanding, you will say, to the poor person? As might be expected you are ignorant; for neither does the blind person know what is the advantage of light. Listen to Solomon, saying, As far as light excels darkness, so does wisdom excel folly.

But how shall we instruct him that is in darkness? For the love of money is darkness, permitting nothing that is to appear as it is, but otherwise. For much as one in darkness, though he should see a golden vessel, though a precious stone, though purple garments, supposes them to be nothing, for he does not see their beauty. So also he that is covetous, knows not as he ought the beauty of those things that are worthy of our care. Disperse then I pray you the mist that arises from this passion, and then will you see the nature of things.

But nowhere do these things so plainly appear as in poverty, nowhere are those things so disproved which seem to be, and are not, as in self-denial.

Let us make note of the fact that the body of a person is constructed like the world itself. As the sky is pre-eminent over air, earth and sea, which serve as members of the world, so we observe that the head has a position above the other members of our body. In the same way, the sky stands supreme among the other elements, just as a citadel amid the other outposts in a city’s defense. In this citadel dwells what might be called regal Wisdom, as stated in the words of the prophet: The eyes of a wise man are in his head. That is to say, this position is better protected than the others and from it strength and prevision are brought to bear on all the rest.

If we think about eyes in the visible sense, then (one can say) that both the foolish and the wise have eyes in their head. The wise [person], insofar as he is wise, turns upwards to Christ, his head. Thus it is written: Christ is the head of every man.^[1] The head of the wise is the mind; therefore it is written: But we have the mind of Christ.^[2]

A wise person and a foolish person have nothing in common, either in terms of human remembrance or in terms of divine recompense. As for human works, the end already overtakes them all while they still seem to be beginning. But a wise person never shares the same fate as a stupid person.

Therefore incline to him of whom the psalmist says, He has not taken his soul in vain.^[1] To speak now of the troubles of this life, the person has taken his soul in vain who is constructing the things of the world and building the things of the body. We arise each day to eat and drink; yet no one is filled so that he does not hunger and thirst after a short time. Daily we seek profit, and to greed there is set no limit. The eye will not be satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing.^[2] He that loves silver will not be satisfied with silver. There is no limit to toil, and there is no profit in abundance.

If the whole earth is not worth the kingdom of heaven, surely he who has left a few fields leaves nothing, as it were; even if he has given up a house or much gold, he ought not to boast nor grow weary. Moreover, we should consider that if we do not relinquish these things for vir-tue’s sake, we leave them behind later when we die and often, as Ecclesiastes reminds us, to those to whom we do not wish to leave them. Why, then, do we not relinquish them for the sake of virtue, so that we may inherit a kingdom? LIFE OF ST.

We exhort, therefore, the widows and orphans to partake of those things that are bestowed upon them with all fear and all pious reverence, and to return thanks to God who gives food to the needy, and to lift up their eyes to him. For, Which of you shall eat, or who shall drink without him? For he opens his hand and fills every living thing with his kindness: giving wheat to the young men, and wine to the maidens, and oil for the joy of the living, grass for the cattle, and green herb for the service of men, flesh for the wild beasts, seeds for the birds, and suitable food for all creatures.^[1] Wherefore the Lord says, Consider the fowls of heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, and your Father feeds them. Are not you much better than they? Be not therefore solicitous, saying, What shall we eat? or what shall we drink? For your Father knows that you have need of all these things.^[2] Since you therefore enjoy such a providential care from him and are partakers of the good things that are derived from him, you ought to return praise to him that receives the orphan and the widow, to Almighty God, through his beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord; through whom glory be to God in spirit and truth forever.