The Book of Wisdom or The Wisdom of Solomon 5:9 Kommentar

Now is the time of mercy, then will be the time of judgment. Why is now the time of mercy? Now he calls to the one who is far away and forgives the sins of the one who returns. He is patient with sinners, until they convert, and once they convert, he forgets the past and promises the future. He exhorts the lazy, consoles the afflicted, teaches the zealous, helps those who struggle. He abandons none of those who labor and cry out to him. He gives to those who give to him; he gives the means by which they might please him. The great time of mercy should not pass in vain, brothers and sisters—it should not pass in vain for us! The judgment will come, and then also there will be repentance, but by then it will be fruitless. “Repentant, they will speak to each other, groaning in anguish of spirit” (these things are written in the book of Wisdom). “What has our arrogance profited us? And what good has our boasted wealth brought us? All this has passed like a shadow.” Let us say now, “All these things pass like a shadow.” Let us say it now, fruitfully, “They will pass,” so we will not have to say then, without fruit, “They have passed.” This is therefore the time of mercy, but there will also be the time of judgment.

“The posterity of the godless will perish.” This is because the posterity of the godless are their works. But we again see that the child of the godless prospers in the world and, at times, becomes righteous and prospers in Christ. Observe therefore how you must understand this, so as to open the roof and come to Christ. Do not understand this carnally, because you would fall into error. But the seed of the godless, all the works of the godless, will perish; they will not bear fruit. For the time being, in fact, they will have some value, but later they will look for what they have done and not find it.

The rich person dies and finds nothing—certainly nothing of the things that he had. In fact, the sin of those things is brought with him, even if all of that for which the sins were committed is left here. Consequently, now one can boast in what he has received, exalt himself over others, be proud of having what his neighbor does not have. A time will come when he will wake up, and then he will know how empty were the things he had while he was dreaming. It often happens that someone who is poor sleeps and dreams of being rich and of thus gaining a courageous soul, rejoicing over having what he did not have and seeking to despise those by whom he had the pain of being despised. But, suddenly waking, he bemoans the image of the riches he had while he slept. Indeed, he groans continually under the weight of poverty, oppressed by the anguish of his straits and, even worse, of having been rich for a brief and useless moment. The rich of this world, who boast of what they have received, are just like this. They are incapable of doing good with their abundance. The rich are like those who sleep, but it would be good for them to awake to their poverty, because they will take nothing with them to that lasting judgment. And the higher they are exalted now, for a brief time, the more bitterly they will weep over themselves for eternity. And, according to the testimony of Wisdom, they will say at their damnation, “What has our arrogance profited us? And what good has our boasted wealth brought us? All this has passed like a shadow, like a fleeting rumor.” When they are already lost, they will know that the things they had were contemptible and fleeting, though when present, they seemed so great and permanent to their foolish hearts. The rich person opens his eyes too late, seeing Lazarus at rest, whom he had despised lying at his door. Then he will understand what he did not want to do, and what he lost, when he did not recognize his neighbor in the poor man. In fact, when the body sleeps in death, the soul awakens to true knowledge, and when the flesh dies, the soul is forced to see all that it had disdained to foresee. Then it will see happen what it feared, and the one who rejoiced to have a greater abundance of things than everyone else will find himself empty.