Jeremiah 20:14

The apostle says, "God commends his charity toward us, because when as yet we were sinners, Christ died for us. Much more now that we are justified in his blood shall we be saved through him from the wrath." Of this wrath he says, "We were by nature children of wrath even as the rest." Of this wrath Jeremiah says, "Cursed be the day when I was born." Of this wrath holy Job says, "Let the day perish wherein I was born." Of this wrath the same Job says again, "Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries."

How much dissatisfaction do we see that even the brief stages of our lives bring on us! The boy longs to be a young man. The young man counts the years when he will be older. The mature man, ungrateful for the blessing of being in the prime of life, eagerly desires the honor associated with old age. Thus, to all there comes naturally a desire for change, simply because we become dissatisfied with what we are now. Therefore, even the very things that we have wished for become wearisome to us on their enjoyment, and what we have desired to obtain we reject on its attainment. Consequently, holy people have not without reason lamented their prolonged sojourning here: David lamented it, Jeremiah lamented it, Elijah lamented it. If we can believe wise people, even those in whom the divine Spirit spoke were hastening to better things.

(Verse 14 and following) Cursed be the day in which I was born, the day in which my mother bore me, let it not be blessed. Cursed be the man (or person) who brought the news to my father, saying, 'A male child is born to you,' and made him rejoice as if with joy. Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without regret; let him hear the cry in the morning and the wailing at noonday, because he did not kill me from the womb to be my mother's grave, and her womb forever pregnant. Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, and that my days should be consumed in confusion? Those who consider that the souls were in heavenly things, and were precipitated from a better to a worse state, make use of this and similar testimonies, which indeed imply that it is better to dwell in heavenly things than in earthly things and to assume a body of humility: certain new things, or rather old, seeking arguments for their heresy. But we, on the other hand, reading that of the blessed Job: Cursed be the day wherein I was born; and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived (Job 3:3). And cursed is the man who announced to my father, saying, a boy is born to you, we fit this testimony, namely that it is better not to exist than to live in torments, according to what is written: Death is rest for a man, to whom God has closed his way (Sirach. XXII, 11). And again: Why is light given to the miserable, and life to those who are bitter of soul (Job. III, 20)? And in the Gospel we read a simple statement: It would have been better for him if he had not been born (Matthew XXVI, 24): not that there is anyone who has not been born; but that it is better not to exist than to be in a bad state. For it is one thing to not exist at all, another to exist but suffer without any respite, just as we prefer a peaceful death to a miserable life. Hence Amos refers to it as a day of darkness, a day of affliction (Amos, V). And Jacob, because he had lived in labor and distress, calls the days of his life few and evil (Gen. XLVII). And the Apostle Paul says: Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from the present evil world (Gal. I, 4). And again: Redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Ephes. V, 16). The Hebrews calculate the fifth month, when Jerusalem was captured and the Temple was destroyed, as the birth of Jeremiah, with…