{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4109","native_reference":{"book_number":250,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":18,"verse_to":18},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Athanasius of Alexandria</b>: 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 virtue'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.<br/><i>— Life of St. Anthony 17</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: \"Thus I<br/>hated all my achievements labouring under the sun, for I must leave it to the<br/>man who succeeds me. And who knows<br/>whether he will be wise or foolish? - And he will control all my possessions<br/>which I toiled and have shown myself wise under the sun. This, too, is vanity. \"He seems to be reconsidering wealth and riches, because<br/>according to the Gospel, being snatched by sudden death, we do not know with<br/>which kind of heir we die - whether he will be a fool or wise who will enjoy<br/>the fruits of our toil. This was also<br/>the case with Solomon: for he did not regard his son Roboam as similar to himself. We learn from this that a son is not worthy<br/>of his father's heredity if he is foolish. <br/>But to me studying the work it seems that he is speaking more about<br/>spiritual labour, because a wise man will work on the Scriptures for days and<br/>nights, and will compose books and will hand down his memory to his<br/>descendants, and nonetheless all this will come into the hands of fools, who<br/>repeatedly find in them the seeds of heresy, according to the perversity of<br/>their own mind, and waste other men's efforts. <br/>For if the text now refers to Ecclesiastes' personal wealth, it was<br/>necessary to say about toil and wealth: \"and he will control all my<br/>possessions which I toiled and have shown myself wise under the sun.\" For what is wise in the pursuit of earthly<br/>riches?<br/><i>— Commentary on Ecclesiastes</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"e6b0a58a1f230cbcc6264eaa42f49af643a65fa6610824fe0b53e772b150edc4","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4109,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"2d1bd933fa689ceb65077f783a7f7734ddc94f844ea9a034d5d51f360e5a2fe4","translator":null,"work":null}