The Living And The Dead

Est confidentia, quoniam canis vivens melior est a leone mortuo: quia viventes sciunt quod moriantur, et mortui nesciunt quidquam, et non est eis amplius merces. In oblivione enim venit memoria eorum. Sed et dilectio eorum, et odium eorum, et zelus eorum jam periit: et pars non est eis  adhuc in saeculo in omni quod fit sub sole. Quia supra dixerat, cor filiorum hominum impleri malitia et procacitate, et post haec omnia morte finiri: nunc eadem complet et repetit, donec vivunt homines, posse eos justos fieri, post mortem vero nullam boni operis dari occasionem. Peccator enim vivens potest melior esse justo mortuo, si voluerit ad ejus transire virtutes. Vel certe eo, qui se in malitia, potentia, procacitate jactabat, et mortuus fuerit, melior potest quis pauper esse et vilissimus. Quare? quia viventes metu mortis possunt bona opera perpetrare: mortui vero nihil valent ad id adjicere, quod semel secum tulere de vita: et oblivione involuta sunt omnia, juxta illud quod in Psalmo scriptum est: Oblivioni datus sum, tanquam mortuus a corde. Sed et dilectio eorum, et odium, et aemulatio, et omne quod in saeculo habere potuerunt, mortis finitur adventu; nec juste quidquam jam possunt agere, nec peccare, nec virtutes adjicere, nec vitia. Licet quidam huic expositioni contradicant, asserentes, etiam post interitum crescere non posse et decrescere, et in eo quod nunc ait: Et pars non erit eis adhuc in saeculo, in omni quod factum est sub sole, ita intelligunt, ut dicant eos in hoc saeculo, et sub hoc sole quem nos cernimus, nullam habere communionem: habere vero sub alio saeculo de quo salvatior ait: Non sum ego de hoc mundo; et sub sole justitiae; et non excludi opinationem, quae contendit, postquam de hoc saeculo migraverimus, et offendere posse creaturas rationabiles, et promereri. Aliter referebat Hebraeus versiculum istum, in quo dicitur: Melior est enim canis vivens super leone mortuo, ita apud suos exponi: Utiliorem esse quamvis indoctum, et eum qui adhuc vivat et doceat, a praeceptore perfecto, qui jam mortuus est. Verbi causa, ut canem intelligeret unum quemlibet de pluribus praeceptorem: et leonem Moysem, aut alium quemlibet prophetarum. Sed quia nobis haec expositio non placet, ad majora tendamus: et Chananaeam illam, cui dictum est: Fides tua te salvam fecit: canem esse juxta Evangelium dicamus; leonem vero mortuum, circumcisionis populum, sicut Balaam propheta dicit: Ecce populus, ut catulus leonis consurget, et ut leo exsultans. Canis ergo vivens nos sumus ex nationibus: leo autem mortuus Judaeorum populus a Domino derelictus. Et melior est apud Dominum iste canis vivens, quam leo ille mortuus. Sanctus Hieronymous, Commentarius Ecclesiasten, Cap IX

'Here is hope, a living dog is better than a dead lion, because the living know that they will die and the dead know nothing, and they have no reward. The memory of them goes to oblivion, and their delight and hatred and zeal has already perished and no part do they have anymore in anything that is done in the world beneath the sun.' 1 Because he said in the previous passage that the hearts of men are filled with wickedness and impudence and after this that death brings to an end, now the same thing returning to he completes, saying that while men live they are able to become righteous, but after death there is no occasion given for good work. For the living sinner, if he should turn to the virtues, is able to become better but not the dead righteous man. Certainly compared to him who glories in wickedness and power and impudence and dies, better he is who is poor and most vile. Why? Because living in the fear of death they can perform good works, the dead however are not able to add to them once they have been taken from life and everything is wrapped up in oblivion. As it is written in the Psalms: 'I was given to oblivion, as one dead from the heart' 2 For their delights and hatred and envy and everything which they were able to do in the world the coming of death has ended. They are neither able to act rightly, nor to sin, nor to add to their virtues, nor to their vices. Some dispute this explanation, saying that when it is said that after death it is not possible to grow or decline, it is said in reference to that which is then written: 'And a part they will have no more in the world, in everything which is done beneath the sun.' And this they understand as saying that they have no communion with those whom we discern in this world and beneath this sun, but they have it with another world concerning which the Saviour spoke when He said, 'I am not of this world,' 3 and so beneath the sun of righteousness, and not to be dismissed is the opinion which contends that after we have passed on from this world, rational creatures will be able to offend and gain merit. In another manner a Hebrew referred to that verse which says, 'Better it is to be a living dog than a dead lion', and expounded it: More useful to be, though uneducated, even yet he who may live and teach from a flawless preceptor who is yet dead. And he understands the dog as one of the many teachers, and the lion as Moses, or one of the other Prophets. But this explanation is not convincing to us, and to a greater one we hold, concerning that Canaanite woman of whom it was said, 'Your faith has saved you' and to whom the Evangelist refers to as a dog. 4 The dead lion, however, is the people of the circumcision, as Balaam the Prophet says, 'Behold a people rising up like a lion's whelp, and like a lion exulting.' 5 Therefore we who are from the Gentiles are a living dog and the dead lion is the Jewish people forsaken by the Lord. And better is to be a living dog with the Lord than that dead lion. Saint Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chap 9 1 Eccl 9. 4-6 2 Ps 30.13 3 Jn 8.23 4 Mt 15.21-28 5 Num 23.24