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Translation
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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Cyril of Jerusalem
Ecclesiastes knew of the Lord's coming at the end of the world when he said, "Rejoice, O young man, while you are young." Subsequently [he said], "Ward off grief from your heart, and put away trouble from your presence. Remember your Creator, before the evil days come, before the sun is darkened, and the light, and the moon, and the stars; and they who look through the windows go blind" (this signifies the power of sight). [Remember] "before the silver cord is snapped" (he means the cluster of the stars, silvery in appearance). …
Gregory of Neocaesarea
Moreover, it is fight that you should fear God while you are yet young, before you give yourself over to evil things, and before the great and terrible day of God comes, when the sun shall no longer shine, neither the moon, nor the rest of the stars, but when in that storm and commotion of all things, the powers above shall be moved, that is, the angels who guard the world; so that the mighty men shall fail, and the women shall cease their labours, and shall flee into the dark places of their dwellings, and shall have all the doors …
Western Saints
Jerome
"Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them; "In this chapter there were many explanations of all things and almost as many opinions as men themselves. It would take too long however to recount all the opinions of everyone and their arguments in which they want to prove their opinions, the matter would require a volume to itself. …
Bede
"The wheel of our life": The ceaseless advance of our earthly life by which we are continuously moved from the day of our birth right up to death as if by the always turning wheel of a carriage. [Thus] Solomon, when he said well, "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth before the time of affliction comes," a little further on added, "And the wheel above the cistern is broken, and the dust returns to the earth it came from."
Bonaventure
He describes punishment in general with respect to three things: first, with respect to the presence of what is harmful; second, with respect to the absence of what is pleasant; third, with respect to the lack of remedy; from the consideration of which he exhorts us to remember God. …
Translation