[J.390] "There is a time to cast stones and a time to gather stones" [3.5]. The leader of the Church's ranks confirmed the strength of his hearers by his teaching that they may now cast stones at their adversaries and procure such stones. We first learned to adapt everything by a measured time and were instructed to provide an appropriate occasion to judge the good which enables us to extend the arm of our soul and to cast stones at our enemies as well as to gather them up that we may always have enough stones to shoot at our adversary. Persons who look only at the letter and the superficial sense also accommodate Ecclesiastes' words to the Law of Moses which bids us [J.391] to cast stones at law breakers [Num 15.32-36]. History has taught us about persons who break the Sabbath and who have stolen sacred objects in addition to other transgressions which the Law has commanded to be punished by stoning. If Ecclesiastes does not provide an opportunity to gather stones of which neither the Law nor any historical record speaks, I would concur with those who interpret the Law as an occasion to cast stones at any violator of the Sabbath or at anyone who removed sacred objects. Another occasion to gather stones which is not legislated offers us another interpretation, that is, it teaches us about this stone after it is cast; the person who threw the stone can possess it again.
After we have cast stones at the appropriate time, we learn to gather them again. It is not sufficient for me to accept the Law at its face value, for what can a mere understanding of the text say of [J.392] God's greatness? If anyone who has gathered sticks for fuel is caught on the Sabbath, must he be killed since this error is not unjust? What transgression is there in gathering dry grass necessary [M.713] to feed a fire? An alien is not condemned to death to make this injustice acceptable; rather, the occasion to cast stones is obvious to everyone. But because this person violates the Sabbath, he is condemned. Who does not know that each action is judged according to its own merits whether evil or not? The time of the action is considered apart from the nature of the person who committed the deed. What shares a common interval of time with an action we freely committed? If asked of what the day consists our response is that the sun above the earth measures morning and evening. Our answer not only pertains to the circuit of the seventh day but to the first and second day right up to the seventh, and that the Sabbath day does not differ from the others according to our notion of a day.
[J.393] Our response with regard to sin is that we should not harm our neighbor. Scripture says "You shall not commit adultery. You shall not kill" and so forth [Ex 20.13-14]. Here the Law is general and the final word on such these matters. It further says that we should love our neighbor as ourself [Lev 19.18; Mt 22.39], precepts which are carried out each day as well as violated. No one who judges something as evil today, whether murder or anything else forbidden, should regard it as good the following day. Since an evil of this kind always transpires in time, indeed no harmful action would be becoming with respect to time. Wood gathered and fire kindled before the Sabbath are not subject to condemnation and punishment. How, then, can this act be held as an offense for the following day? I am familiar with the Sabbath rest and the ineffectiveness of the Law which orders man to cease from work and does not hinder his natural functions. If the Law orders us to do something impossible such as requesting us to remain inactive, does this differ from any of life's other functions? Who does not know that the eyes' function is to see, the ears to [J.394] hear, the nose to smell, the mouth to inhale, the tongue to speak, the teeth to chew food, the bowels to digest food, the feet to walk and the hands to be active? How can the Law endorse inaction if our human nature is not lazy? How can I persuade my eye not to see on the Sabbath when its very nature is to see? How can I stop my faculty of hearing? How can I persuade my sense of smell to ignore odors in accordance with the Sabbath? How can my intestines not perform their function by allowing undigested food to remain in the body that they be inactive according to the Law?
If the rest of our bodily members cannot observe the inaction prescribed by the Law (for their inactivity is a sign of no life), it is impossible to observe the Sabbath [M.716] even though our hands remained inactive or food stayed in our stomachs. Since the Law is for man as a whole and not for just one member of his body, we will observe the Law by not keeping one member at rest or violate its command by performing other natural functions. However, the Law is divine; nothing which God [J.395] ordains is unnatural nor improper, but any unreasonable inactivity lacks virtue. Therefore, it behooves us to examine what the Sabbath means by its command of inactivity. I maintain that the entire divine Law has one aim, freedom from evil deeds, because it bids us to observe the Sabbath by refraining from wickedness. It contains the tablets [Ex 34.18] and the Levitical observation accurately recorded in Deuteronomy [Num 1.47] which request us to remain inactive with regard to evil. If we accept the Law which makes us refrain from evil, I agree with the wise Ecclesiastes who counsels against gathering wood and the casting of stones because he prohibits us to gather the wood of evil which feeds fire. But if a person observes theLaw's letter, I do not see how it contains any action befitting God.
We must now examine the stones which are cast so that our eagerness for collecting wood might not be impeded. What are the trees serving as fuel [J.396] for the person who gathers them? Clearly they have a mystical significance. If the Apostle [Paul] calls wood, corn and grass material to construct an evil house [1Cor 3.12]--such dwellings at the time of judgment are cast into the fire and the useless wood is fit only for the fire--then the wood gathered for fire clearly represents this life's vain pursuits, and we need to cast stones against this dwelling at the appropriate time. We would be correct in understanding wood as any thought inclined to evil, so we must perceive these stones which Ecclesiastes rightly casts at the destructive thoughts of evil. We should always cast them and then gather them. An enemy comes to lay waste our noble life; however, the bosom of our souls must always be prepared to cast [stones] against the foe if we perceive that he is ready to assault us in another manner. Where do we gather stones to hurl against our foe? I have heard the prophet saying "for holy stones are rolled upon the land" [Zach 9.16, Septuagint]. We must gather into our soul's bosom these divinely inspired words which come down [J.397] for use against our foes. Our casting of stones [M.717] destroys the enemy, a deed closely associated [with the stone itself] because whoever casts the stone of temperance at an unchaste thought which feeds the fire through pleasure is victor and always bears a weapon in his hand. Once righteousness becomes a stone against injustice, it destroys this evil and is kept in our bosom. In this way everything we understand about the good which destroys evil is associated with a person who conducts himself virtuously. Thus our interpretation [of Ecclesiastes' words] requires a time to cast stones and a time to gather them that we may always cast goodness to destroy evil and never lack such weapons.
The words which now follow deal with opportune and inopportune times. The text reads "There is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing" [3.5], words which will become clear only if we first look at them in the context of scripture [J.398] and enable us to clearly know how the divinely inspired text is used for obtaining insight. The great David cries out in the Psalter "Walk around Zion, go round about her" [Ps 47.13]. Solomon himself made a spiritual connection by yoking our capacity for love to wisdom and utters other words to unite us to virtue, "Honor her in order that she will embrace you" [Prov 4.8]. If David bids us to walk around Zion and if Solomon says that wisdom will embrace those who honor her, we will not be mistaken about the meaning [of the text] before us which instructs us about an opportune time. Mount Zion is Jerusalem predominantly situated upon a mountaintop; therefore he who urges you to embrace her bids you to be united to that lofty manner of life in order to attain the peak of virtues as symbolized by Zion. He who wishes wisdom to dwell with you [J.399] announces her embrace. And so, it is time to walk around Zion [ perilambanein ] and be embraced [ perilambanesthai ] by wisdom for the word "Zion" represents an exalted manner of life. However, wisdom in itself signifies every virtue. If we had known the opportune time for embracing as expressed by [Ecclesiastes], separation is perceived as superior to union. Ecclesiastes says "There is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing." Anyone joined to virtue is hostile to evil. "What partnership does light have with darkness or what does Christ have to do with Belial" [2Cor 6.14-15]? How can a person serve two opposite masters and be well-disposed to both [Mt 6.24]? He either loves one or hates the other.
When we lovingly cling to the beautiful (that is, what is opportune) we alienate ourselves from any previous hostility [M.720]. If you truly loved temperance, you hate its opposite. If you lovingly contemplate purity, you despise the foul stench of filth. If you cling to the good, you would indeed distant yourself from clinging to evil. If anyone associates the meaning of this embrace with one of wealth, Ecclesiastes points out the richness of this good which we embrace [J.400] along with the embrace of those possessions we should rid ourselves. I realize that the treasure hidden in the field for which we long [Mt 13.44] is not apparent to everyone. The Apostle says "We do not look to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" [2Cor 4.18]. If we have understood these words, we will see their meaning by what now follows.
"There is a time to seek and a time to lose" [3.6]. The text we have just examined teaches us how to distant oneself from embracing and how to unite oneself. We are able to comprehend both what is worthy of seeking and the benefit obtained from destruction. "There is a time to seek and a time to lose." What does Ecclesiastes oblige me to seek in order to realize an opportune time? But let us see what prophecy says: "Seek the Lord and be strengthened" [Ps 104.4]. And again, "Seek the Lord and when you find him, call upon him" [Is 55.6]; "let the heart that seeks the Lord rejoice" [Ps 104.3]. These verses teach me of the necessity to seek and that my discovery consists in a constant search for [J.401] seeking is not one thing and finding another, but the gain obtained from our seeking is to seek yet further. Do you wish to learn the opportune time for seeking the Lord? Let me briefly state that your entire life is the only time to carry this out. Seeking the Lord is not defined by limit or time; rather, the truly opportune time for this consists in never putting an end to our search. "My eyes are always upon the Lord" [Ps 24.15]. Do you see how diligently the eye searches for its object? It never rests nor ceases from comprehending what it seeks. The word "always" [ dia pantos ] shows our need for continuity and unceasing zeal. In the same way let us understand the time for losing as gain because any form of gain is subject to penalty. Avarice is a wicked possession we should lose; we should reject remembrance of past injuries which we have stored up. Another harmful possession is unbridled lust which we must take special care to banish in order to possess the kingdom of poverty. "Blessed are the poor in spirit" [Mt 5.3], that is, those persons who lack wealth [M.721] and the devil's other treasures. But it is even more blessed not to possess the first impulse of evil in order to [J.402] be free from harmful possessions. Similarly, a person in evil's grasp must both free himself from these possessions and utterly destroy them although not to share these evils is better, despite the fact that our human nature has the capacity of abolishing them.
Only the Lord is free from the adversary's possessions; he conformed himself to us and our passions yet had no sin [Heb 4.15]. "The prince of this world is coming and he has no power over me" [Jn 14.30]. Anyone who takes care to cleanse himself by repentance can observe persons who allow virtue to shine through. Paul despised the evil of unbelief by accepting the gift of prophecy [Gal 2.8-9] since it had the treasure he sought. Isaiah lost all impurity of word and thought through purification by the divine coal [Is 6.6-7] and was filled by the Holy Spirit. He lost every bit by participating in the good or anything he reckoned contrary to it. And so, the temperate man loses licentiousness, the righteous loses unrighteousness, the modest person loses arrogance, the benevolent loses jealousy and the loving person loses hostility. Similarly, the blind man in the Gospel found what he did not have and lost what he already had [Mk 8.22-26], that is, the splendor of light [J.403] took the place of his blindness. Also the leper received the boon of health [Mt 8.1-4], and life was bestowed upon those who rose from the dead while death passed away [Mk 1.40-45]. Therefore our teaching claims that we cannot possess anything on high unless we lose our earthly, humble qualities. Once we discover [heavenly treasures] our earlier preferences pass away, for their destruction will procure for us more honorable things. Our Lord teaches this by saying "He who finds his soul will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it" [Mt 10.39]. The soul will not find anything in its zealous pursuit of material gain, however, privation and loss constitute our hope: "What profit is there to a man if he gains the entire world and loses his soul" [Mt 16.26]? As Ecclesiastes says, "There is a time to seek and a time to lose" [3.6]. If we know the value of our seeking which is found by the destruction of evil, let us seek one and lose the other. Let us seek the good and lose evil.
The following words rightly follow those we have just examined: "There is a time [J.404] to keep and a time to cast away" [3.6]. What are we to keep? It is clear that any discovery comes from seeking. What are we to cast away? Anything whose destruction we deem beneficial. A good thought arises [M.724] when you desire to see God; your soul thirsts for the strong, living God [Ps 41.3], and you desire to be in the courts of the Lord [Ps 83.3]. In my opinion these courts are the virtues inhabited both by reason and reasonable actions. I have kept watch over them so that the wealth of clean possessions which my mind now has may not flow out to you. Certain impure thoughts enter; like a hidden thief they steal away pure thoughts, so we must reject them. We will safely protect the treasure house of our good possessions by banishing impure thoughts. If we fail to reject their destructive power, our possession will be of no value when housebreakers easily enter by their crafty schemes.
We have learned of the time to seek: "Everyone who seeks will find" [Mt 7.8]. Let us diligently guard our treasury that what we have found might abide. "Keep your heart with all vigilance" [Prov 4.23] once you have found the object of your search, for it is better to guard the grace we have already found. One example is a person who discovers faith and purity through purification, [J.405] but it is more difficult to guard what we have found than to find what we did not have. Similarly, the time to seek is not limited to a fixed occasion; instead, one's entire life should be an opportunity for seeking that good. And so we must carefully measure out the time to guard our entire life as that prophetic voice now says, "My eyes are always towards the Lord because he will rescue my feet from the net" [Ps 24.15]. These words will enable us to safely protect our good possession since God is their guard. Whenever my eyes are always towards the Lord, the enemy's snares endeavoring to assault my soul's precious possessions will be rendered ineffectual. "He will not let your foot be moved, he who keeps you will not slumber" [Ps 120.3]. This verse provides the present context for the words which just preceded. Ecclesiastes bids us to seek in order to find while also counseling us to guard against losing our possessions. We understand this guarding of the good as our rejection of anything contrary. Similarly, a besieged city is kept safe by casting out traitors, but when hidden enemies are within the city, they hatch secret plots instead of open ones. "There is a time to keep and a time to cast away."
[J.406] The words which now follow conduct the soul to a loftier philosophy about creation. It shows that the universe contains everything, and its harmony does not admit the dissolution of created beings; instead, we have concord between them all. Neither is the universe severed from any of its parts, but all things remain in their essence by the power of him who truly exists. Indeed the Being [God] is true existence or absolute goodness [M.725], and any name we ascribe to him points to his unutterable reality. How can we ever find that name "which is above every other name" as the divine Apostle says [Phil 2.9]? But any name meant to explain the ineffable power and nature [of God] signifies that which is good. Therefore this good [God] or that which transcends any good has true existence through which it bestows existence and continues to give power and permanence to creation, whereas anything outside it lacks existence; whatever lies outside the realm of existence does not remain in being. Since evil [J.407] is directly opposed to virtue and God is absolute virtue, evil is alien to God's nature whose nature does not exist in him but which cannot be comprehended by the good; we apply the name of evil to that which outside the good. Evil is opposed to the good as non-being is distinguished from being. We avoid the good by our free will just like persons see darkness who are not in the light. Then evil's insubstantial nature lays hold of those who deviate from the good and continues to have existence as long as they remain outside the good. If our free will once again dissociates itself from insubstantiality and is united to being, it no longer exists in me nor will really exist because evil cannot exist apart from free will. However, when I adhere and cling to what truly exists, I remain in the Being which always was, will be and now is. Ecclesiastes words, "There is a time to rend and a time to sew" [3.7], convey this meaning. If we [J.408] dissociate ourselves from our previous adhesion to evil, we must cling to God whose good in this adherence. "For me it is good to cling to God, and to place my hope in the Lord" [Ps 72.28].
I have said that there are many other useful counsels such as "Remove evil from yourselves" [1Cor 5.13]. The divine Apostle imposes these words upon a condemned person, one outside the Law and one who is separated from the Church because a small amount of the leaven of evil which a condemned person commits can render the entire lump of the Church's prayer useless [cf. 1Cor 5.6]. However, the person rejected by sin can again join the Church through repentance "in order that he might not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow" [2Cor 2.7]. Thus Paul knows the opportune time for cutting off the soiled part of the Church's garment and for sewing it back on again, that is, when we wash it from defilement through repentance. As in our own lives, we observe many such examples in ancient narratives which are fulfilled in the churches out of solicitude. Realize from what we are cut off and are always sewn on. Having been severed from heresy, we are sewn on to the true religion, for [J.409] the robe of the Church, as we observe, is still whole, even when it has broken off any fellowship with heretics. [M.728] But whether the text teaches through our earlier considerations or through the present counsel, it contains useful words for rending and sewing at the opportune time.
Let us continue further because for me a reading of the text is appropriate due to its loftier philosophy. In the first place Ecclesiastes offers us a time to keep silent and then a time to speak. When and about which things is it better to maintain silence? We are usually silent when we hear an edifying word as from Paul who discerned a time for silence and speech; he legislated one time for silence and another for speaking: "Let no evil talk come out of your mouths" [Eph 4.29] Such is the law of silence. But if any good for building up faith is required to bestow grace upon one's listeners, it is an opportune time to speak. "Women should observe silence in the churches" [1Cor 14.34]. Here is another time for silence: "If there is anything [J.410] they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home" [1Cor 14.35]. In these words Paul gives a further opportunity for speaking. "Do not lie to one another" [Col 3.9] is an opportunity for silence. "Let everyone speak the truth with his neighbor" [Eph 4.24] shows the power of the spoken word. The Old Testament offers many similar examples. "When the wicked man stood before me, I was dumb, humbled, and kept silent from speaking good things" [Ps 38.1-2]. And, "I was as a deaf man who does not hear and as a dumb man unable to speak" [Ps 37.13]. Yet when the wicked man is present a person remains silent and unmoved before the charge of evil; when it is time to speak, he opens his mouth in parables [Ps 77.2], utters words, fills his mouth with praise [Ps 70.8] and makes his tongue a pen [Ps 44.1].
What necessity is there for minutely examining the innumerable references of scripture since they mean the same? But I first wish to sum up in a few words the prudence for an opportune time with regard to silence and speech by using the example of a break and sewing. There the text presents for our comprehension of that which has true being by clinging to it the soul which adheres in an corrupt fashion to what is opposite, [J.411] an observation we had made earlier. To me, first place seems given to silence, that is, to God who transcends every thought and name [Phil 2.9]. Once the soul breaks from evil, it always seeks and desires to be sewn onto the object of its search, God, who is [M.729] loftier than any of our words. Anyone detracting from the significance of the text sins against God whom we believe utterly transcends our capacity for speech. However, the person attempting to comprehend God who cannot be circumscribed by limitations, does not admit that God transcends the universe. He sets his own reason up in opposition, considering it to be such and such a thing which can contain any type of thought. He does not know that God in whom we believe transcends our knowledge and that every consideration befitting him serves to guard his true existence. Why is this so? Because every created being looks to what is connatural, and no being can remain in existence apart from itself. Fire cannot exist in water; neither can water be present in fire, dry land in the depth, water in dry land, earth in the sky nor the sky in the earth. Everything is limited by its own nature as long as it exists and stays within its own bounds. If anything created goes outside itself, it will lose its own essence [J.412] just like the senses which cannot transgress their natural functions. The eye does not function like the ear nor does our sense of touch speak; hearing does not taste, but each sense is limited by the power natural to it. Thus all creation cannot transgress its natural limitations by a comprehensive insight; it always remains within its own bounds and whatever it may view, it sees itself. Should creation think it beholds anything which transcends it, this cannot be because it lacks the capacity to look beyond its own nature.
The contemplation of beings is restricted by a certain notion of temporal interval which cannot be transgressed. Indeed, for every conception which the mind gives birth an interval of time is considered along with the substance of that which had thought it; an interval of time is nothing other than creation. The good which we strongly encourage to seek, guard, to unite ourselves and cling to transcends creation and thought. Our mind functions by using intervals within time, so how can it grasp [God's] nature which is not subject to temporal extension? Through the medium of time the inquisitive [mind] always leaves behind any [J.413] thought older than what it just discovered. The mind also busily searches through all kinds of knowledge yet never discovers the means to grasp eternity in order to transcend both itself and what we earlier considered, namely, the eternal existence of beings. This effort resembles a person standing on a precipice (Let a smooth, precipitous rock which abruptly falls off to a limitless distance suggest this transcendence whose prominence reaches on high while also falls to the gaping deep below). A person's foot can touch that ridge falling off to the depths below and find neither step nor support for his hand. To me, this example pertains to the soul's passage through [J.414] intervals of time in its search for [God's] nature which exists before eternity and is not subject to time. His nature cannot be grasped because it lacks space, time, measure and anything else we can apprehend; instead, our mind is overcome with dizziness and stumbles all over the place because it cannot lay hold of transcendent reality [M.732]. Being powerless, it returns to its connatural state. Our minds love to know only about God's transcendence of which they are persuaded because his nature differs from anything we know.
When reason confronts that which transcends reason, it is time to be silent and marvel at his unutterable power which cannot be explained since it is hidden in one's consciousness. It knows that the great prophets speak of God's works, not of God himself. "Who can tell of the Lord's power" [Ps 105.2]?; "I will tell of all your works" [Ps 9.2] and "Generation after generation will praise your deeds" [Ps 144.4]. These words explain what our human voice can utter, but silence becomes the norm with regard to him who utterly transcends any conception. [J.415] We therefore say that "the glorious majesty of his holiness" [Ps 144.5] has no end. Oh, how marvelous! What reverence the text shows when contemplating the divine nature when it cannot comprehend such a transcendent wonder! The text did not say that the divine essence is boundless and claimed to be so audacious as to comprehend it; rather, it marvels at God's glorious majesty. Once again the text is unable to see the glory of God's essence but is struck dumb before the glory of his holiness. Therefore God's nature is far removed from our curious inquiries, and even the loftiest of manifestations cannot admire it. The text does not admire his sanctity nor the glory of his holiness but stresses only the glorious majesty of his holiness. We cannot grasp the object of admiration, and so the psalm says that "the glorious majesty of his holiness" has no end.
When it to comes to words about God and searching his essence there is a time for silence, but when it concerns some good operation of which we have knowledge, it is time to speak of God's power, miracles and works which necessitate words. A creature should not overstep its bounds with regard to transcendent matters but remain content with knowledge of [J.416] himself. If, in my opinion, he does not know himself, he as a creature cannot comprehend the soul's essence, the body's nature, the origin of created beings, how generations spring into existence from one another, how beings come into existence from nothing, how they dissolve into nothing and the harmony created from opposing tensions which constitute this world. If a created person does not know himself, how can he speak of transcendent matters? Thus there is a time to keep silence about such matters, and this silence is better. There is also a time to speak of those things which make our lives grow in virtue in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power forever. Amen.