A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
All Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 3:4 Go To Ecclesiastes 3
Gregory of Nyssa
AD 394
Passionate and profound lamentation is called “mourning” in Scripture. Similarly, dancing also indicates the strength of joy, as we learn in the gospel, where it says, “We played to you, and you did not dance; we lamented, and you did not mourn.” In the same way history relates that the Israelites mourned at Moses’ death and that David danced as he went at the front of the procession of the ark, when he carried it away from the foreigners, not appearing in his usual clothes. It says that he sang, playing an accompaniment on his musical instrument, and moved to the rhythm with his feet, and by the rhythmic movement of the body made public his devotion. Since, then, a human being is twofold, I mean made of soul and of body, and correspondingly twofold also the life operating in each of them within us, it would be a good thing to mourn in our bodily life—and there are many occasions for lamentation in this life—and prepare for our soul the harmonious dance. For the more life is made miserable with sadness, the more occasions for joy accumulate in the soul. Selfcontrol is gloomy, humility is dreary, being punished is a grief, not being equal with the powerful is a reason for sorrow, but “the one who humbles himself will be lifted up,” and the one who struggles in poverty will be crowned, and the one covered with sores, who exhibits his life as thoroughly lamentable, will rest in the bosom of the patriarch. May we too rest in it, through the mercy of our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever.
