Main news for 16 November 2024

At first Ecclesiastes reasons confidently; his thoughts about how well and how badly people are able to use wealth give the impression of clearly thought-out life principles. But in the end the reflections come to the question: who knows what is good for man in life? This question resembles a cry in a dead end into which the questioner has fallen while hoping to find his way out of the labyrinth. The entirely correct observation that all a person's labor is for his mouth, yet his soul is not satisfied, was a deep insight, but it surpasses hopes for the sufficiency of a quiet life based on peaceful labor and the use of its fruits.

Centuries will pass, and Christ will say as something self-evident: "life is more than food, and the body than clothing" (Luke 12:23), and these words can be called both an answer to Ecclesiastes and a confirmation of his insights. Yet even now the fullness of meaning in the Gospel words fits only with difficulty into many hearts.