Didymus the Blind : Every soul has a reprehensible companion and a praiseworthy one: the bridegroom, which is the Logos, and the adulterer, which is the devil. If the devil is present, one should not give him room; one should not let him in, as Judas did. This kind of companion needs to be hated. But a "time to love" has come when the true bridegroom is present. He is worthy of love, so much so that one of the saints has said, "My love has been crucified." But love is intensified desire. Further, we have a commandment to love our enemies and to approach those who hate us in such a way that we even send a prayer to heaven for them. Insofar as we desire that they be helped and do not want ourselves to be troubled by hostility, we love our enemies; but insofar as we do not imitate them and do not accept the same things or want to be enemies as they want to be, we hate them. — COMMENTARY ON Ecclesiastes 81:4 Didymus the Blind : If powers, forces, rulers of the world of darkness and evil spirits tempt us, we are not supposed to take issue with them or make peace with them, but we must fight them. But when we have subdued them and are given power "to tread on snakes and scorpions," then it is a time for peace. Thus, first the devil has to be crushed under the feet of the saints. When it is time for war, one has to tread on "all the power of the enemy." But when we have broken them down, we can live in enduring peace, our thinking is free from confusion, and we have a time for peace. — COMMENTARY ON Ecclesiastes 81:21 Gregory of Nyssa : If we have learned, then, whom we should go to war with and how to carry on the fight, we must also learn the other part of the lesson, with whom the Scripture solemnly warns us to make a peaceful alliance. What is the good army, with which I am to join forces through peace? Who is the king of such an army? It is clear, from what we are taught by the inspired Scriptures, that it is the array of the angels of the host of heaven. Gregory of Nyssa : If you make a distinction in your mind between things thought of as virtue and vice, you will recognize the moment for the right attitude to each of them. Restraint and pleasure, selfcontrol and indulgence, humility and pride, goodwill and crookedness, and all that are regarded as opposites of one another, are plainly set out for you by the Ecclesiast, so that by adopting attitudes about them in your soul you may make profitable decisions. Thus there is a moment for loving restraint and for hating pleasure, so that you do not become pleasureloving rather than Godloving, and likewise in all the other cases, quarrelloving, gainloving, gloryloving, and all the rest, which through the use of affection for improper ends separate us from the disposition to good. Gregory of Nyssa : What truly exists is the one and only intrinsically Lovable, of whom also the rule of the Ten Commandments says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." And again the only thing to be hated in truth is the inventor of evil, the enemy of our life, about whom the law says, "You shall hate your enemy." The love of God becomes a strength for the one who loves, but the disposition to evil brings destruction on the one who loves [what is] evil. Gregory of Nyssa : We must love one thing alone, that which the law of the Decalogue speaks, "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul and mind." There is one object deserving of our hated, the inventer of evil, the enemy our lives of whom the Law says, "You shall hate your enemy." The love of God strengthens the person who loves, whereas a disposition towards evil brings destruction upon anyone who loves it. — HOMILIES ON Ecclesiastes 8 Gregory of Nyssa : Therefore the distinction between virtue and vice enables us to understand the opportunity which present. Ecclesiastes explains continence and pleasure, temperance and intemperance, modesty and arrogance, benevolence and maliciousness and anything else of this sort for imparting profitable advice. Thus we have a time to love continence and to hate pleasure that we may refrain from licentious behavior and be devout. Strife, gain, love of glory and so forth do not benefit love but prevent us from maintaining a pleasant disposition. — HOMILIES ON Ecclesiastes 8 Gregory of Nyssa : If we have gained knowledge about the enemy against whom we must fight and take up arms, we ought to learn about another part of the text, that is, when to make a treaty of peace. Who is the good commander? He enables me to win favor by peaceful means. Who is the leader of this army? The divinely inspired scriptures clearly depict the battle array of angels belonging to the heavenly army. — HOMILIES ON Ecclesiastes 8 Jerome : "A time for loving and a time for hating." The time for loving God, children, wife, and relatives is afterwards, and the time for hating those in martyrdom since hostile piety attacks those steadfast men for the sake of the confession of Christ. Or maybe there is a time for loving the law, and those things that the law decrees- that is circumcision, sacrifices, the Sabbath, Neumania [The Jewish feast of the New Moon.], and a time for hating them when the grace of the Gospel has been lost. But we cannot say this, since now we look through the mirror in mystery, the time for loving is the present, and in the future there will come a time when we will see face to face and then, more accomplished, we will begin to hate and despise what we love. [Cfr I Cor. 13, 12.] "A time for war and a time for peace. "Although we are in the present world, it is the time for war: when we have left this world the time for peace will come. For the place of God is in peace and so too is our city of Jerusalem, for it is called 'chosen in peace'. Therefore no one now thinks he is safe: you must prepare yourselves in the time of war and put on the apostles arms, so that we may rest in peace at last victorious. — Commentary on Ecclesiastes