only on the third day that the plants, flowers, and trees were created out of the earth, while man was created on the sixth day; hence, before the fourth day there was nothing in which the planets could render any service, and for a time they would have been useless, a thing that the Author of nature could not approve of. That is the reason why those heavenly bodies were made on the fourth day, “because there was not yet on the earth any seed to be fructified and fostered by their heat.”[1] So far Severianus. The almighty God wished to show thereby that nothing useless should be tolerated in the world. And Our Lord Himself confirms this in the well-known parable in the Gospel of St. Luke: “A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none.” What! said he in anger to his gardener: “Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this tree, and I find none.” Why should I allow it to stand any longer? “Cut it down, therefore; why cumbereth it the ground?”[2] A good tree might be planted in the place of this useless one. Away with it, therefore, and throw it into the fire.
An idle man is good for nothing. There you have a vivid picture of the man who leads an idle life, who spends the greater part of the day doing nothing; that is, in sleeping late in the morning, taking a long time to dress, eating and drinking, paying and receiving visits, gambling and amusing himself, walking, standing at the door and window, talking and chatting. In a word, he wastes the day in trifles of all kinds, has no order in important affairs, and no becoming occupation for head or hand. AVhy cumbereth he the ground? Why should a man of that kind remain on earth any longer? Come, death! so must the angry Creator say; cut him down! away with that useless tree! Let that idle man be no longer of the number of the living! For he is good for nothing; neither for himself, nor for others, nor for God!
Firstly: he is no good for himself, as man is born to labor. He is useless for himself because he does nothing for the end of his creation. “Man is born to labor, and the bird to fly,”[3] are the words of the Holy Ghost by the Prophet Job; and God has commanded man to work constantly and diligently, that he may gain eternal rest. Yes, says St. John Chrysostom, “there is no
- ↑ Quia nondum erant terræ naseentia semina, quæ luminarium calore foverentur.
- ↑ Arborem fici habebat quidam plantatam in vinea sua, et venit quærens fructum in ilia, et non invenit. Ecce anni tres sunt ex quo venio, quærens fructum in ficulnea hac, et non invenio; succide ergo illam: ut quid etiam terrain occupat?—Luke xiii. 6, 7.
- ↑ Homo nascitur ad laborem, et avis ad volatum.—Job v. 7.
