Scattering And Gathering Stones

Tempus spargendi lapides et tempus saltandi... Miror, quomodo vir disertus rem ridiculam in hoc loco dixerit: De destructione, inquiens, et aedificatione domorum Salomonis sermo est, quod homines nunc destruant, nunc aedificent: alii congregent lapides ad aedificia construenda, alii uae exstructa sunt, destruant, secundum illud Hoatianum: Diruit, aedificat, mutat quadrata rotundis. Aestuat, et vitae disconvenit ordine toto. Hoc utrum recte, an perperam dixerit, lectoris arbitrio derelinquo. Nos prioris explanationis sequamur ordinem: Tempus saragendorum et congregandorum lapidum esse dicentes, juxta illud quod in Evangelio scriptum est: Potens est Deus de lapidibus istis suscitare filios Abrahae. Quod tempus fuerit gentilis populi dispergendi, et tempus rursum in Ecclesiam congregandi. Legi in quodam libro, juxta Septuaginta tamen Interpretes, qui dixerunt: Tempus mittendi lapides, et tempus colligendi, severitatem Legis antiquae, Evangelli gratia temperatam. Lex quippe rigida, inbenigna, non parcens, peccantem interficit. Evangelii gratia miseretur, et ad poenitentiam provocat. Et hoc esse tempus mittendorum lapidum, sive congregandorum, quod lapides mittantur in Lege, colligantur in Evangelio. Hoc uturm vere ne ne dictum sit, suo imputetur auctori. Sanctus Hieronymous, Commentarius In Ecclesiasten, Caput III Source: Migne PL 23.1035c-1036b

A time of scattering stones, and a time of gathering stones... 1 I wonder how an educated man can have said of this passage that it speaks of the destruction and building of Solomon's temple, which men now destroyed and now built up, some gathering stones for the construction of the building and others destroying what had been built, as in the lines of Horace: He cast down, he built, he changes the square into a circle. He sweats, and is discontent with the whole order of life. 2 Whether he said this rightly or wrongly, I leave to the will of the reader to determine. We shall follow the arrangement of the previous expositions by saying that the time of the scattering and the gathering of stones is in accordance with that which is written in the Gospel: 'God can raise up sons of Abraham from these stones.' 3 Since there was a time when the peoples of the Gentiles were scattered and again a time when there were gathered into the Church. I have read in a certain book which follows the translation of the Septuagint and has here, 'a time for casting stones and a time for gathering,' that this is about the tempering of the old Law by the grace of the Gospel. Because the Law rigidly and unkindly and unsparingly kills sin, and the grace of the Gospel is merciful and calls to penance, this is the time of casting stones and gathering them, because stones are cast in the Law and gathered up in the Gospel. Now whether this which is said is true or not I leave to the author. Saint Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 1 Eccles 3.5 2 Horace Epis 1.1.99-100 3 Mt 3.9