{"id":75,"date":"2007-04-30T12:12:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-30T12:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eclecticamateur.wordpress.com\/2007\/04\/30\/ancient-and-modern"},"modified":"2007-04-30T12:12:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-30T12:12:00","slug":"ancient-and-modern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.znfrey.com\/blog\/2007\/04\/ancient-and-modern.html\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient and Modern"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Office reading from the Wisdom of Solomon<\/a> seems pretty up-to-the-minute:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

1<\/span> For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, “Short and sorrowful is our life, and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end, and no one has been known to return from Hades.
2<\/span> Because we were born by mere chance, and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been; because the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts.
3<\/span> When it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes, and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
4<\/span> Our name will be forgotten in time and no one will remember our works; our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud, and be scattered like mist that is chased by the rays of the sun and overcome by its heat.
5<\/span> For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow, and there is no return from our death, because it is sealed up and no one turns back.
6<\/span> “Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist, and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.
7<\/span> Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no flower of spring pass by us.
8<\/span> Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
9<\/span> Let none of us fail to share in our revelry, everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment, because this is our portion, and this our lot.
10<\/span> Let us oppress the righteous poor man; let us not spare the widow nor regard the gray hairs of the aged.
11<\/span> But let our might be our law of right, for what is weak proves itself to be useless.
…
21<\/span> Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them,
22<\/span> and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls;
23<\/span> for God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity,
24<\/span> but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God have mercy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Office reading from the Wisdom of Solomon seems pretty up-to-the-minute: 1 For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, “Short and sorrowful is our life, and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end, and no one has been known to return from Hades.2 Because we were born by mere chance, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-of-death"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sZgq-1d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.znfrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.znfrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.znfrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.znfrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.znfrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.znfrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.znfrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.znfrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.znfrey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}