Ecclesiastes — Chapter 9

Omnia haec tractavi in corde meo: sunt justi atque sapientes, et opera eorum in manu Dei, et tamen nescit homo utrum amore an odio dignus sit

Lapide extensively treats the uncertainty of grace. The just and wise, together with their works, are in God's hand -- in His knowledge, protection, and providential governance. Yet no one can know with absolute certainty whether he is in God's love or hatred. He engages the Protestant doctrine of assurance of salvation, refuting Luther and Calvin with the Council of Trent (session 6, chapter 9), and discusses five interpretations of \"love and hatred.\" He affirms the Catholic teaching that while the just may have probable conjectures and pious confidence of their state of grace, they lack the certitude of faith, which keeps them humble and diligent.

Sed omnia in futurum servantur incerta, eo quod universa aeque eveniant justo et impio

Lapide teaches that all things are reserved uncertain for the future because the same events befall the just and the unjust, the clean and the unclean, the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. He explains from the Hebrew that \"all things are before them\" means all things precede and surpass human comprehension, being hidden in God's foreknowledge. This common lot of pious and impious -- sharing the same mortality, illness, famine, and misfortune -- prevents external events from being reliable indicators of spiritual standing.

Hoc est pessimum inter omnia quae sub sole fiunt, quia eadem cunctis eveniunt

Lapide identifies this as the worst consequence of the common lot: because the same things happen to all, the hearts of men are filled with wickedness and contempt during their lives, and afterward they descend to the dead. He explains that this equal distribution of fortune emboldens sinners to impiety, since they see no visible difference between the fate of the just and the unjust. He cites St. Jerome and Bonaventure on how this apparent injustice scandalizes the weak and encourages the wicked.

Melior est canis vivus leone mortuo

Lapide gives extensive literal, tropological, and allegorical interpretations of this proverb. Literally, any living creature, even the vilest dog, is nobler than the most magnificent dead lion, because life itself surpasses death. Tropologically, a living sinner who can still repent is better off than a dead saint who can no longer merit. He applies this to penitents surpassing the tepid: a fervent convert (the living dog) excels a once-righteous person grown cold (the dead lion). Allegorically, he identifies Christ as the dead Lion of Judah who conquered Cerberus (the infernal dog, the devil).

Viventes enim sciunt se esse morituros; mortui vero nihil noverunt amplius

Lapide explains that the living know they will die and can act accordingly, but the dead know nothing more of this world's affairs. He carefully distinguishes natural from supernatural knowledge: the dead do not naturally know earthly events (though God or angels may reveal them), and they have no taste or experience of this life's pleasures. He refutes Origen's error that the damned can later merit salvation, and Luther's claim that souls in purgatory can merit or demerit. He affirms that the time of death is the absolute end of meriting.

Amor quoque et odium et invidia simul perierunt

Lapide teaches that at death, all earthly passions -- love, hatred, envy -- perish. The dead have no further part in anything done under the sun. This serves as a powerful moral lesson: the thought of death should restrain all disordered affections, since death extinguishes them all. He cites Campensis: the dead have neither friends nor enemies, nothing in common with this world. He refutes the Protestant misuse of this passage against purgatory and prayers for the dead.

Vade ergo et comede in laetitia panem tuum, et bibe cum gaudio vinum tuum, quia Deo placent opera tua

Lapide explains this as Solomon's practical conclusion from the preceding reflections on vanity and death: enjoy your bread and wine moderately, honestly, and with gratitude to God. He distinguishes this from Epicurean hedonism, emphasizing the qualifier \"because God is pleased with your works.\" Allegorically, Cyril of Jerusalem interprets the bread and wine as the Eucharist, the oil (in the next verse) as Confirmation, and the white garments as Baptism. The Chaldean paraphrase expands this into a vision of the just man eating the bread stored up for him through his charity to the poor.

Omni tempore sint vestimenta tua candida, et oleum de capite tuo non deficiat

Lapide provides an extraordinarily detailed exposition of white garments and oil. Literally, he describes the ancient customs of wearing white at banquets, sacred ceremonies, and festivals, with extensive citations from Roman, Greek, and Jewish sources. Tropologically, white garments signify purity of body and works, while oil represents charity, grace, and mercy. He traces the use of white baptismal garments through early Church practice, describes the origin of Agnus Dei wax medals, and expounds the anagogical meaning: white garments represent the splendor of heavenly glory toward which we should always aspire.

Perfruere vita cum uxore quam diligis

Lapide counsels honest and moderate enjoyment of married life, explaining that the wife represents one's lawful companion and comfort during this unstable life of vanity. Mystically, the wife is wisdom and virtue, to which one should be joyfully united for life, since she alone accompanies the soul after death and leads to heavenly blessedness. He cites St. Jerome: \"Follow wisdom, take her as your spouse, as Proverbs 4 says: Love her and she will preserve you.\"

Quodcumque facere potest manus tua, instanter operare

Lapide delivers a powerful exhortation to work diligently and urgently at every good deed while life lasts, because after death there is no work, no reasoning, no wisdom, and no knowledge in the grave toward which one hastens. He explains \"instanter\" (with all one's strength) as requiring full application of will, intellect, and energy. He gives the memorable example of Chancellor Philip of Paris who appeared after death lamenting that the world had not yet ended and that no further merit was possible. He cites St. Gregory, Nazianzen, and the Arabian proverbs on the urgency of good works.

Nec velocium esse cursum, nec fortium bellum, nec sapientium panem, nec doctorum divitias, nec artificum gratiam, sed tempus casumque in omnibus

Lapide identifies another vanity: success does not always follow talent. The swift do not always win the race, the strong do not always win the battle, the wise do not always have bread, the learned do not always gain wealth, and skilled artisans do not always win favor. Time and chance (occasion and contingency) dominate all. He gives three interpretations: Epicureans use this to deny providence; Thaumaturgus sees it as correcting voluptuaries; most aptly, Olympiodorus and Bonaventure see Solomon teaching that fortune's role in human affairs demonstrates the need to trust in God's providence rather than one's own abilities.

Nescit homo finem suum, sed sicut pisces capiuntur hamo

Lapide compares men to fish caught on hooks and birds caught in snares: death and calamity seize them suddenly and without warning. He draws extensive moral lessons about the three great snares -- gluttony, avarice, and pride -- which lure men as bait lures fish. He cites St. Leo on the devil's universal trap-laying and St. Anthony's vision of the whole world covered with demonic snares, from which only humility provides escape. The sudden and inescapable nature of death should inspire constant vigilance.

Civitas parva et pauci in ea viri; venit contra eam rex magnus

Lapide treats the parable of the small city besieged by a great king and saved by a poor wise man, identifying it as either a historical event from Solomon's time or a paradigmatic illustration. He connects it to the story of Archimedes defending Syracuse against the Romans. Allegorically, Christ the poorest and wisest liberates the Church (the small city) from the tyranny of the devil (the great king). Tropologically, St. Jerome interprets the small city as the human person, the great king as the devil, and the poor wise man as the good inspiration that resists temptation.

Dicebam ego meliorem esse sapientiam fortitudine; quomodo ergo sapientia pauperis contempta est

Lapide laments the ingratitude that wisdom receives when embodied in a poor man: though the wise pauper saved the city, no one remembered him afterward. He reflects on the universal tendency to honor wealth and power over wisdom, citing examples of Scipio, Themistocles, Miltiades, and Coriolanus -- all liberators of their countries who were repaid with exile. He teaches that wisdom surpasses military strength, yet the world perversely despises the wise when they lack external splendor.

Verba sapientium audiuntur in silentio, plus quam clamor principis inter stultos

Lapide gives five interpretations of this verse. Most profoundly, he explains that the words of the wise are heard \"in silence\" -- that is, they emerge from a quiet, serene, grave, and pious mind, and are received by attentive, tranquil listeners with greater effect than the shouting of a prince among fools. He contrasts the humble, measured speech of the wise (like the waters of Siloam flowing silently) with the clamorous rhetoric of demagogues. He cites Isaiah 42 on Christ who \"shall not cry out,\" and St. Jerome's warning against ecclesiastical declaimers who excite applause rather than conversion.

Melior est sapientia quam arma bellica; et qui in uno peccaverit, multa bona perdet

Lapide concludes Chapter 9 with the antithesis of wisdom and folly: wisdom surpasses all weapons of war because it can save entire besieged cities and conquer all obstacles. Conversely, one sinner (one fool, one act of folly) can destroy much good -- as one traitor can betray a city, one rash counsel can lose a war, one vice can corrupt an entire life. He cites the adage: \"One fool can throw a stone into a well that a thousand wise men cannot extract,\" illustrating how easily folly undoes what wisdom has built.