When Human Thoughts Perish

Exiet spirtus ejus et revertetur in terram suam; in illa die peribunt omnes cogitiationes eorum. Hic spiritum animam debemus accipere, sicut ait in Evangelio: Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum. Egressa itaque anima de claustro corprois sui, in terram remeat caro defluens, unde sumpsit initium. Ideo enim addidit, suam, ut significaret inde fuisse procreatam, sicut legitur in Genesi: Fecit Deus hominem de limo terrae. Mortis igitur tempore pereunt humanae cogitationes, quae se in diversos ambitus semper extendunt: modo possessionibus studentes, modo divitias congregantes, modo honores magnopere perquirendo. Sed haec omnia dispereunt, quando earum rerum vota frustrantur; sicut divitem in Evangelio legimus increpatum: Stulte, hac nocte auferetur a te anima tua: quae autem praeparasti cujus erunt? Cassiodorus, Expositio In Psalterium, Psalmus CXLV Source: Migne PL 70.1029c

His spirit shall go out and return to his earth, on that day all their thoughts shall perish. 1 Here we should understand the spirit as the soul, as it is said in the Gospel, 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.' 2 Thus with the soul having gone out from the enclosure of its body, the dissolving flesh returns to the earth, from whence it was taken in the beginning. And therefore he adds 'his' to signify whence it was fashioned, as is read in Genesis, 'God made man from the mud of the earth.' 3 Therefore at the time of death human thoughts perish, which stretch out to various things around a man, in one way to a desire for possessions, in another for the gathering of riches, in another for the acquisition of great honours. But all these things dissipate when the longing for these things is frustrated, as we read the rich man was admonished in the Gospel, 'Fool, your soul shall be taken from you this night, and who shall now have all you have stored up?' 4 Cassiodorus, Commentary On The Psalms, from Psalm 145 1 Ps 145.4 2 Lk 23.40 3 Gen 2.7 4 Lk 12.20