Wealth - Week 4: Friday

Ecclesiastes 5:9-16

He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;
 Nor he who loves the harvest, with its abundance.
 This also is vanity.

In the abundance of good things


They who eat them also increase,

But what virtue does the owner have from them,

Except to see them with his eyes?

The sleep of a servant is sweet,

Whether he eats little or much;

But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.
 There was a sickness I saw under the sun:

Wealth kept for its owner to his hurt.

That wealth shall perish in painful distraction,

And he begets a son;

But there is nothing in his hand.

As he came from his mother’s womb,

Naked shall he return, to go as he came;

And he shall take nothing from his labor

That it may go with him in his hand.

This also is a painful sickness,

For as he came, so shall he go;

And what is his gain, for which he labored for the wind?
 All his days are in darkness and sorrow

And in much anger, sickness, and gall.

Commentary

St. Ambrose

Ecclesiastes sees that riches are kept for ill by one who possesses them, for their loss causes great anxiety. Indeed they are lost, for they are left here and can be of no advantage to one who is dead. And so, the dead man felt anxiety in regard to them and could not find rest; he left what would bring him shame and did not take with himself what he could keep.