Empty Hope, Fruitless Labours

Sapientiam enim et disciplinam qui abjecit infelix est; et vacua est spes illorum, et labores sine fructu, et inhabitabilia opera illorum sunt. Nunc ostendit quid sit hoc, quod superius dixerat a Domino recessisse, hoc est, sapientiam et disciplinam abjicere, quorum vacua est spes, et labores sine fructu, quia in vanum sperant se temporalibus perpetualiter uti posse, vel peccata faciendo impunitos posse evadere, horum et labores sunt sine fructu futurae mercedis, et opera illorum inhabitabilia: quoniam operarium ipsorum coelestis habitationis non possunt facere participem. Cui cum iniquorum omnium capite improperando scelera sua Psalmista praedixit dicens: Propterea destruet te Deus, in fine evellet te, et emigrabit te de tabernaculo tuo et radicem tuam de terra viventium. Possunt et haeretici in hac sententia non inconvenienter accipi, qui sapientiam divinam et regulam rectae fidei abjicientes, labores doctrinae suae atque errorum sectas in vacuum et sine fructu vitae aeternae expendunt, quorum intentio stulta et nequissima sunt opera. Rabanus Maurus, Commentariorum In Librum Sapientiae Wisdom, Liber I, Caput VII Source: Migne PL 109.683b-c

He who casts aside wisdom and discipline is abject, and their hope is empty, and their labours are without reward and their works a waste... 1 Now he shows what this may be, what he said previously about withdrawing from the Lord, that it is to cast off wisdom and discipline, and their hope is empty, and their labours fruitless, because in vain they hope they shall have temporal things forever, or that committing sins they shall be able to escape punishment, and the fruitless nature of their labours pertains to the future reward, and their works are a waste because they are not able to make them participants in the celestial mansions. Concerning which, with the condemnation of their crimes through the leader of all the wicked, the Psalmist foretells, saying: 'On account of which God shall destroy you, in the end he shall pluck you out, and tear you from your tabernacle, and your root from the land of the living.' 2 It is also possible to understand heretics in this pronoucement, who casting off the Divine wisdom and the rule of right faith, expend the labours of their teaching and the ways of their errors in emptiness and without the fruit of eternal life, those whose purpose is foolish and their works wicked. Rabanus Maurus, Commentary On Wisdom Book 1, Chapter 7 1 Wisd 3.11 2 Ps 51.7