Ecclesiastes 1:5

The sun of righteousness rises in the soul. The beginning of its rise is preparatory. It is a preparatory enlightenment. But when it circles around the whole soul and enlightens it altogether so that nothing is outside the light any more, then the soul is in perfect enlightenment. For often it sets in order to rise again. Sunset and sunrise are in accordance with its progress. And sunset and sunrise are united with respect to its location. The second enlightenment means sunset with respect to the previous enlightenment, but it means sunrise with respect to the enlightenment now beginning.

"The sun
rises and the sun sets, then it rushes to its place, where it rises again." The
sun itself, which is given as light for mankind, shows the orbit of the world
by its rising and it setting every day.
After the sun has soaked its burning orb in the ocean, it returns by
routes unknown to me to that place whence it had come; and when the period of
night is over, it again bursts out quickly from its bed. In place of "rushes to its place"
though, because we are following the Vulgate version, the Hebrew reads ""soeph"" which Aquila interpreted as "eispnei" in Greek, that is "pants [Hier.. "aspirat"]";
Symmachus and Theodotion write '"returns"'
because the sun clearly turns around to its original place and it aspires to
return there, from whence it had come earlier.
But all of this is explained so that he can teach that with the passage
of time and the rising and the setting of the stars man's age slips away and
perishes, yet he does not know this for certain. Another meaning of this is: the sun of
righteousness, in whose wings lies reason, rises from those who fear and sets
midday in the false prophets. But when
it has risen it takes us to its place.
Where is that? Evidently it means
to the Lord himself, for it happens that he raises us from the earth to heaven,
saying, "when the son of man is lifted up, he will lift up all things to
him". [John 12, 32.] Nor is it surprising that the son lifts up
men to himself, when even the Lord himself lifts up to his son: "for no
one", he says "comes to me except the Father, who sent me, draw
him". [John 6, 44.] That sun therefore, which we have said sets
for some and rises for other, and once set for Jacob the patriarch as he was
leaving the Holy Land, rose again for him when he entered the promised land
from Syria. When Lot too left Sodom and
came to the city, which he was commanded to hasten to, he climbed a mountain
and the sun came out above Segor [Cfr. Gen. 28, 11; 32, 31.].

And Solomon says: The sun ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place. Arising he goeth there towards the south and wheeleth round in his circuit, and the wind goeth on its circuits. He also, in what he says, agrees with Moses and David, namely, that the sun proceeding from the east ascends to the south, and by making a circuit through the north, causes the tropics, and completes the great circle of the year in his passage through the air; for this is what the expression the wind goeth on means, as if he said, in the air.

By the blessed Solomon then, when in the book of Ecclesiastes, a book attested [to be inspired], and not rejected [from the canon] he says: The sun ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place; arising there he goeth to the south, and wheeling in his circuits, wheels towards the north; the wind goeth and turneth about in its circuits. Behold then the sun running his course in the south, and wheeling round to the north, and be instructed.

The great sun, when compared with the Sun of righteousness, is vanity.

In the allegorical sense, the sun signifies Christ. "The sun rises and the sun goes down." It rises in the nativity, it goes down in death; it orbits through noon in the ascension; it is inclined to the north in the judgment.

Ecclesiastes shows these four when he says: "The sun riseth, and goeth down, and returneth to his place: and there rising again, maketh his round by the south, and turneth again to the north." Marvelous was the origin: how the supersubstantial radiation was united to humanity in the womb, came forth from the womb; how He dwelled in the world, alive, shining and inflaming; how in death He condescended to die; how later He rose from the nether world, first into [His] body and then into heaven; and how He shall come back for the judgment. There was a marvelous duration of eternity in the union of the Godhead with humanity. For it is impossible to have a greater separation, short of the denial of God's existence: since it would be easier to separate an angel from its essence. The breadth of charity came about in death; the marvelous sublimity of power, in the ascension; the marvelous depth of wisdom will come about in the judgment. These are wondrous [realities] by which the soul is placed, so to speak, outside of itself.

Here secondly he shows mutability in the celestial nature, as is evident in the sun, which never rests, but when it rises, it tends toward setting, whence it does not remain in its rising. Therefore he says: "The sun rises and sets," so that it does not remain in the place of rising nor even in the place of setting; thence he adds: "And it returns to its place." Nor does it remain there, whence he also adds: "And there being born again it circles through the south." Nor does it remain even in the middle place; therefore he adds: "And it bends toward the north."

This can be explained with respect to the diurnal motion, or also the annual. With respect to the diurnal, Hugh says: "The sun rises daily, when it is presented to human sight. It sets when, descending to the lower parts, it withdraws itself from our eyes. It returns to its place, because, driven by the rotation beneath, it again returns to its place. But rising again it circles through the south, because by an oblique course it ascends from the east to the meridian line; then it turns toward the north, because, descending toward the west, it again inclines toward the north by an oblique progression."

With respect to the annual motion, thus: "The sun rises when through the vernal equinox it ascends to our pole. It sets when, passing through the autumnal equinox, it descends to the lower regions. It circles through the south when it lingers in the winter signs. It turns toward the north when it revolves in the summer signs, which are nearer to the northern pole." And thus the sun does not stand still by nature, but only by miracle, as is read in Joshua 10: "Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and moon, over the valley of Ajalon."

Spiritually, this sun is Christ, concerning whom Malachi four: "The Sun of Justice shall rise upon you who fear my name." This sun rises in the nativity to illuminate: Isaiah sixty: "Arise, be illuminated, Jerusalem": and John one: "He was the true light, which illuminates every man." This sun sets in the passion to redeem: Amos eight: "The sun shall set at midday," that is, in the vehement love of charity. This sun returns to its place in the ascension: Luke nineteen: "A certain man went into a far country." This sun circles through the south, that is, in the fervent love of the Saints: Song of Songs one: "Show me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you lie down at midday": and John fourteen: "If anyone loves me," afterwards: "We will come to him and make our abode with him." This sun turns to the north in the final judgment: Jeremiah one: "From the north shall all evil be spread."

Likewise it is asked, since other luminaries likewise rise, why he speaks more of the sun than of others.

I respond: it must be said that once mutability has been established in the sun, which is the noblest and most luminous among the heavenly bodies, it is sufficiently given to be understood in the others.

Likewise, he seems to proceed in a disordered manner, because he says that it sets before he says that it circles through the south: for it circles before it sets.

I respond: it must be said that he does not arrange them according to progression, but according to dimensions or the limits of dimensions. Therefore, because east and west are opposites, they are immediately ordered together; likewise, because south and north are opposites, they are similarly placed immediately in the manner of a cross.

But there is a doubt about what he says: "It returns to its place," because in the firmament no one place of the sun is more its place than another.

If you say that it returns to the place from which it began its course: this is manifestly false, because the sun is always moved by its own motion either ascending or descending; therefore it never returns to the same place.

Likewise, what does he mean when he says: "Turning toward the north." For if the sun is moved by diurnal motion with the motion of the firmament, and the firmament moves uniformly and similarly, then it does not turn more toward the arctic pole than toward the antarctic, or conversely.

If you say that this is understood of its proper motion: but the sun according to its proper motion ascends and descends in the zodiac, and when it ascends, it approaches the north; when it descends, it draws near to the south; therefore it does not turn more toward the north than toward the south.

I respond: it must be said that one can speak of the motion of the sun as diurnal and annual. If we speak of the annual motion, it is true that the sun returns to its place, because it began to move from there. But if we understand this of the diurnal motion, it does not return to its place from which it began to move according to the truth, but according to our estimation, since it does not make a sphere but a spiral.

To the second it must similarly be said that if we speak of the annual motion, it holds true according to the four seasons, as was said above, because it rises in spring, sets in autumn, circles through the south in winter, and turns toward the north in summer. But if you understand this of the diurnal motion, this does not hold true except according to our estimation. For we see the firmament moving, and we imagine its poles to the right and to the left; but it is not so, rather one pole is as if above our heads, namely the northern; the other as if beneath our feet. When therefore the sun revolves according to the poles of the firmament, it does not go directly above our heads and beneath our feet, but as if transversally; and because we see according to the level plane, it seems to us that by day it inclines toward the south and by night toward the north.