Vanities….All is Vanity!

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he must leave property. This also is vanity and a great misfortune. For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun? All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest. This also is vanity.

Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Brothers and sisters: If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.

Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

The first reading for this week is taken from one of the strangest books in the Bible, the Book of Ecclesiastes. It is strange because of its dark and pessimistic view on life. We may question, "Why is this rather depressing book being placed in the middle of the sacred scripture"? In the beginning it introduces an old man, Qoheleth, a name that means “churchman”, or “assemblyman”. He describes himself as a person who has seen it all, done it all, and experienced it all. He has had wealth, power, pleasure, and all material goods and knowledge. A Jewish tradition even suggested that Qoheleth might be King Solomon himself. Nevertheless, his sobriety offers these words of distilling wisdom, "Vanity of Vanities! All is vanity." (Ecclesiastes 1:2) Hebrew scholars suggest the word “vanity” has similar meaning of "air" or "bubble", something insubstantial.

In this reflection, I would like to share two concise spiritual lessons. First, "who we are" is always more important than "what we have". This is what the Bible keeps telling us repetitively. What we have, such as honor, wealth, power, titles, all that will be left behind and fade away. Qoheleth is telling us this deep abiding truth that all possessions are ultimately vanities, and they are “a chase after wind”, (Eccels 1:14) and insubstantial like a bubble. In contrast, who we are is the quality of our heart and our soul. It determines how we are going to stand before the Lord – an all-important issue with everlasting implication. What matters to God the most is our dignity and integrity as a person, and how we form our heart and conscience as we go through a life-long process of making difficult moral decisions.

At every moment of our day, we are faced with a choice. We may either choose to love and to will the good of others, or to fall into self-absorption, to defend, to cling to ourselves, and to seek possessions. Saint John Paul II, in his moral writings, says that every moral act does two things: It produces some effect in the world, and at the same time, it helps to build up character of the one who performs it. In other words, the kind of moral act – either a loving one or a self-serving one – will determine the kind of person we will become. It makes who we are, which matters infinitely more than what we have, even though the world is telling us otherwise! Therefore, we must be someone to conform to the image of God with our full heart and soul.

The second spiritual lesson can be understood from the spiritual masters. From biblical times on, we were made and wired for God. Saint Augustine famously says, "Lord, you've made us for yourself, and therefore, our hearts are restless until they rest in you." (Augustine, Confessions Book 1) We are made for the Lord, and only He can satisfy us. Therefore, everything in this world is by definition less than satisfying. The greatest tragedy is that we hook our indefinite desire for God onto things that are less than God, anything "under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:3): Money, sex, power, authority, sensual pleasure, and material things, whatever it is. These are great temptations to us. When we rely on such things for our ultimate happiness, we end up in serious trouble. When our life is built on transient things, it becomes transient. That is why this book of Qoheleth is so powerful for us, when it surveys all that terrains. That is why we need Qoheleth to remind us that all these earthly goods and pleasures are nothing compared to the ultimate value of almighty God.

So, what should we do? It is a great paradox! G.K. Chesterton puts it very well: The moment when we let go of this world, we realize that Qoheleth is right. Everything in this world is ultimately vanity and it won't satisfy us. It is precisely when we let go of it that we learn to love it and enjoy it! It is meant to play all these worldly things in a higher context - in the context of God. Can we use our wealth for God's purpose? Yes! Can we give our wisdom over to God and let Him use it for his purposes? Yes! Can we put in all of our earthly accomplishments under God's plan? Yes! When they are given to God, they are transformed, and become beautiful and their purposes are fulfilled.

Acknowledgement
This is an excerpt from Bishop Robert Barron's homilies, including
“The Great Yes and The Great No”, “The Lessons of Qoheleth”, “The Wisdom of Qoheleth”, and “All is Vanity, and That's Good News”. For more information, please visit Word On Fire.

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