{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4100","native_reference":{"book_number":250,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":9,"verse_to":9},"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>Didymus the Blind</b>: The wise person always finds himself \"increasing\" when he prospers. But in life, it is the last and the first thing to reach perfection. In Scripture it is said, \"When human beings have finished, they are just beginning.\" Of course, even if human beings reach the perfection possible in this life, still, as it is said, \"We know only in part.\" In the activity of \"increasing\" there is always something virtuous.… [The prophets and Moses] prophesied what Jesus would do and teach. But Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. The actualization of potentialities is always an \"increase.\" These prepared the way, but he has perfected the way when he declared about himself: \"I am the way, the truth.\" And he says to his disciples: \"Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.\" In this you see that Jesus' disciples had more righteousness than the previous ones.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Ecclesiastes 42:24</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: \"Thus I<br/>grew and surpassed any of my predecessors in Jerusalem; still, my wisdom stayed<br/>with me.\" It seems to me that Ecclesiastes, acting<br/>grandly, agrees less with the Lord, unless by chance we adapt this to him:<br/>\"He [Jesus] increased in wisdom and age and grace\" [Luc. 2, 52.]. And, \"on account of which God took him<br/>on high [Phil. 2, 9.]\". He also says \"those who were before me<br/>in Jerusalem\" and is referring to those who, before he arrived, steered<br/>the congregation of holy men and the Church. <br/>If we explain the text in a spiritual way then Christ is richer than all<br/>men; and he only perceives the Synagogue better in bodily form than the<br/>Church. Therefore he wears a veil,<br/>because it was placed over the face of Moses and he let us see his face in<br/>daylight. [Cfr Ex. 34,33. ; II Cor. 3, 13.] More precisely \"wisdom has stayed with<br/>me\", means even in respect to the temptations of the body wisdom stayed<br/>with him. For he who receives a profit<br/>from his wisdom will not keep wisdom long, but he who does not receive a gain,<br/>nor grows through change, but always has plenty- he is able to say, \"and<br/>wisdom has stayed with me\".<br/><i>— Commentary on Ecclesiastes</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"219ca89dbd8fe7faaeadc872eff8f720e526be607b3bdf3fa89afeb1923ca262","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4100,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"f38252b25a6aa66792583f3028b596726b7b029533997ad2e15a738cbbc60cbb","translator":null,"work":null}