Homilies on Ecclesiastes

Contents

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1. 1Gregory introduces Ecclesiastes as the book for the church’s way of life, reads its title of Christ the true Ecclesiast, defines “vanity of vanities”, and expounds Eccl 1:1–11 as a lesson to look beyond sense-perceived life to the original state restored in the resurrection.
2. 2Gregory reads Eccl 1:12–2:3 of Christ the true Ecclesiast who came to seek out evil under heaven, denies that God gave evil (the abuse of free choice is the cause), and expounds Solomon’s testing of wisdom, laughter and pleasure as a search for the lasting good, which he identifies with the work of faith.
3. 3On Eccl 2:4–6 Gregory praises the confession of faults as a lesson for the church, and contrasts Solomon’s houses, vineyards (with the warning of Lot’s drunkenness), parks and pools with the true adornment of the soul: Scripture, the virtues and the spring of divine teaching.
4. 4On Eccl 2:7–11 Gregory condemns the owning of slaves as arrogance against God, since every human being bears God’s image and was made to rule only over irrational creatures, then attacks love of money and lending at interest, and the singers and cupbearers of the banquet, concluding that every pleasure is like writing on water.
5. 5On Eccl 2:12–26 Gregory treats departure from vice as the beginning of the virtuous life, identifies true Wisdom with Christ and vice with the privation of the good, reads “the wise man’s eyes are in his head” of eyes fixed on Christ the head, and answers the objections that death makes wise and fool equal and that eating and drinking are the good.
6. 6On Eccl 3:1–4 Gregory sets due measure and right timing as the criteria of the good, and reads the seasons to be born and to die, to plant and pluck up, to kill and heal, to pull down and build, to weep and laugh, to mourn and dance, of the soul’s birth through virtue, dying to sin, and present mourning that leads to future gladness.
7. 7On Eccl 3:5–7 Gregory reads the stones thrown and gathered as scriptural words used against evil reasonings (rejecting a literal reading of the Sabbath-breaker’s stoning), the embracing of Zion and wisdom, seeking God throughout life and losing vices, keeping what is found, tearing from evil and sewing on to God and the church, and silence about God’s essence but speech about his works.
8. 8On Eccl 3:8–13 Gregory explains how sense-perception, ruling the mind from infancy, misleads human judgment of the beautiful, so that love must be directed to what is truly lovable (God, and Christ given as food) and hatred to the enemy; he describes the spiritual war against the passions and peace with God, and reads the rest of the passage as teaching that God made all things good and the misuse of free choice turns them to evil.