Recently a friend of mine (Chaplin Matt Temple) conducted a funeral. He made me aware that the first statement in the famous "a time to...a time to" passage in Scripture is "a time to be born, and a time to die" (Eccl 3:2).
The day of death is better than the day of birth (Eccl 7:2). Of coarse, that depends on who you are. Death comes to all. And that's why the Preacher avows, "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind" (Eccl 7:2).
Societies are marked by feasting: from the rich American who snorts cocaine and wife-swaps, to the poor Haitian peasant who after work inebriates himself with moon-shine under the moon light blackness of a sweltering Haiti night.
"Sorrow is better than laughter" (Eccl 7:3a). "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning" (Eccl 7:4a). Are you wise? Go to the house of mourning. That is a philosophical tension in life. Jesus promises to make our joy complete, but he would tell us to go to the house of mourning---for this is the end of all mankind.
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