Eclesiastes 3
John Cassian · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Eclesiastes 3:17
In Ecclesiastes the divine wisdom has indicated that there is an appropriate time for everything—that is, for all things, whether they be fortunate or be considered unfortunate and sad. As it says, "There is a time for all things, and a time for everything under heaven." … And a little later it says that "there is a time for everything and for every deed." It has therefore been determined that none of these things is a permanent good, except when it is carried out at the right time and in correct fashion. Thus the very things that turn out well now, since they were done at the right time, are found to be disadvantageous and harmful if they are tried at an inopportune or inappropriate moment. The only exception to this is those things that are essentially and of themselves either good or bad and that can never be turned to their contraries, such as justice, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and the other virtues, and, on the other hand, the vices, which can never be understood differently. But if they can sometimes have different effects, so that they are found to be good or bad in accordance with the character of those who are exercising them, they are perceived not in absolute terms relative to their nature but as sometimes advantageous and sometimes harmful in keeping with the disposition of the one exercising them and with the opportuneness of the moment. -.
Eclesiastes 3:17
The Divine Wisdom has pointed out in Ecclesiastes that for everything, that is for all things happy or those which are considered unfortunate and unhappy, there is a right time. As it says, "For all things there is a time, and a time for everything under the heaven." … And later it says, "For there is a time for everything and for every deed."None of these things is laid down as always good, but only when they are fittingly done and at the right time. So these very things that turn out well, when done at the right moment, if they are ventured on at a wrong or unsuitable time are found to be useless or harmful. The only exceptions are those things that are in their own nature good or bad and that cannot ever be made the opposite—for example, justice, prudence, fortitude, temperance and the rest of the virtues; or on the other hand, those faults that cannot possibly be altered or classed as virtues. But those things that can sometimes turn out with either result—so that, in accordance with the character of those who use them, they are found to be either good or bad—these we consider to be not absolutely in their own natures useful or injurious, but only so in accordance with the disposition of the doer and the suitableness of the time. — CONFERENCE 21:12