VANITY OF VANITIES

SUNDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Eccl 1:2,2:21-23; Ps 95:1-2,6-9; Col 3:1-5,9-11; Lk 12:13-21

Paying Attention to Spiritual Goods

The readings for this Sunday call us to a sober reflection on life and our purported achievements. What exactly is the value of our accomplishments in life? How do we understand the values of things, to know what to place our interest and energy in? These are some of the questions we must consider, given our readings. The word of God is our light, guiding us through life, that we may not walk in darkness. Hence, if the word informs us that God created us for himself, that we may share his life in communion, then we must live in such a way as to achieve the goal or purpose of our creation. The scripture says God created man in his image and likeness. That God wants us to be like him implies that we are supposed to live by divine values and the spiritual goods that God stands for. There is a hierarchy of goods and values in the created universe. The wisdom of God arranged all in beautiful order and harmony. The rational light he gave to man is well suited to guide him in understanding the ordering of goods and values in the universe, so that following the created wisdom in things, he may come to the knowledge of the Creator of all things and the Supreme Good. In light of this understanding, we reflect on the readings of today.             

The created things are good, for God made them good, as the scripture witnessed in Genesis. But their goodness is only a derived goodness, dependent on God, who is the Supreme Good. They are useless if they do not lead us to God, for that defeats the purpose of their creation by God. It is on this basis that the Preacher calls them vanities. “Vanity of vanities, the Preacher says. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity!” By the gradation of goods and values, a lower good or value must lead us to the higher one. Its usefulness lies in the role it plays as a pointer to a higher good or value. The lower remains good to the extent it leads to the higher good. It fails a soul when it is not able to lead it to the higher good. The Preacher implies this in his consideration. “For so it is that a man who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This, too, is vanity and great injustice; for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun?” We see no real gain or benefit for the hard labour and material success coming from it, if the man has only the material goods or success as the goal of his labours. If he sees himself as preparing a better life for those coming after him; fulfilling the will of God by his labours; giving God the glory and worship for his achievements; understanding the spiritual values of hard work, perseverance, honesty, patience, etc. which are high goods and values accruing to him through his labours; then he has truly transcended the limitation of the mortal life to eternal life.

Virtue is undying, as the scriptures testify. We carry them along to another life. The material success we must abandon here because it contains limited and lower goods, with no eternal value. But the good character, which we must never sacrifice for material success, is a greater good that is spiritual and lasting. The laborious days, cares of office, restless nights, etc., are vanities if they are considered and endured only for themselves. If they are used to prove and achieve an untainted character, then they have their usefulness. Saint Paul drives this lesson home by admonishing us to look for the things that are in heaven. “Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand.” Hence, we are to do the serious work of our profession in life, and seek the material goods coming from the hard work, but look beyond the immediate remuneration and success to the reward of faithfulness to God’s word, which is the holiness required to enter his presence.

Furthermore, since the personal character and virtues are intermediary goods, we are also not to seek them as ends in themselves. They are subordinated to the ultimate Good, that is, God. Thus, Jesus Christ must be our final desire, our life, and motivation. “Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God.” Before the appearance of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, we were not clear on the nature of our supreme good or destiny. But the Son of Man has come and revealed himself to be our way, the truth, and the life of man. Thus, to be found in Jesus Christ must be the sole purpose of our living and doing anything in life. Whatever does not lead us to him is truly vanity of vanities. In this sense, Paul judges Christ to be everything and in everything. “There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.” The parable of the rich fool, which Jesus used to teach the man fighting with his brother for an inheritance, endorses this holy doctrine. Our Lord called the rich man a fool for not knowing that material riches and abundance are only useful goods and not ends in themselves. “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?’” These goods are not for storage in the sense that the man delighted in them, but to be used to trade the eternal goods and the ultimate Good. “So, it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.” Recall our Lord’s teaching that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who finds an inestimable treasure and sells all to purchase it. Let us trade every good for Jesus Christ, that we may be in him.

Let us pray:  Draw near to your servants, O Lord, and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness, that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide, you may restore what you have created and keep safe what you have restored. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.