VANITY OF VANITIES
Eccles 1:2-11; Ps
90:3-6,12-14,17; Lk 9:7-9
The Vanity of Life outside the Vineyard
Many of us are familiar
with the frustration of not having the right instrument or equipment for a
particular task. Consider, for example, attempting to loosen a nut without the
right spanner. One can injure oneself or destroy the bolt and nut in the attempt.
The same applies when we live to pursue earthly things and passing amusements
and pleasure. These engagements may provide momentary pleasures or amusement,
but these do not last because our lives are not made for creatures. The life we
have received is a mystery and something beyond our comprehension. But to sound
its depth, we must acquire the right key or access code to unlock the door of
life and its meaning. As we have noted previously in our reflections, we are
the vineyard of God, the inheritance of his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only
one who can unlock the meaning of our lives and give us entry into the heaven
of God that is within us. This is the reason he desires to employ us in his
vineyard. He came with our nature to give us eternal life in place of the
temporal. Our transformation into him achieves this goal. Every other
engagement here on earth is delusional and self-deceptive.
The temporality of every
earthly amusement and pleasure intrigued the Preacher, or Qohelet. He paints
every human engagement here on earth without God in sombre light. “Vanity of
vanities, the Preacher says. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity! For all his
toil, his toil under the sun, what does man gain by it?” We must let this
question of the wise Preacher instruct us and direct our steps in this
marketplace. Without Christ’s light to guide us, our life on earth becomes a
walk in a maze. Understanding the confusing and delusional nature of this life
ought to make us seek employment in the vineyard of the Lord, where a wage for
our eternal day is assured. “A generation goes, a generation comes, yet the
earth stands firm for ever. The sun rises, the sun sets; then to its place it
speeds, and there it rises. Southward goes the wind, then turns to the north;
it turns and turns again; back then to its circling goes the wind.” The cyclic
nature of creatures produces the delusion of stability; we must walk in our interior,
in the vineyard, where the Lord directs our work.
Only in our interior can we encounter the Son of Man, who comes to employ us in the vineyard. In the vineyard of the Lord, everything makes meaning for the light of the Son of God illuminates our day as we work. Those who rely on the senses walk in the darkness of sin and evil. “All things are wearisome. No man can say that eyes have not had enough of seeing, ears their fill of hearing. What was will be again; what has been done will be done again; and there is nothing new under the sun.” When we live by the senses alone, even if we find ourselves in the Church, we walk in error and darkness. We must walk in faith; faith in the word of God that we hear daily. Herod desired to see Jesus Christ, but only out of curiosity. “Herod the tetrarch had heard about all that was being done by Jesus; and he was puzzled, because some people were saying that John had risen from the dead, others that Elijah had reappeared, still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life.” This is another delusion from the devil; the belief that men come back to life after death. With such a lie, he deceives us to waste our precious time. Hence, we must pray with the Psalmist: “Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart.” Jesus Christ is the wisdom of our interior walk and our guide in our interior work.
Let us pray: O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law upon love of you and of our neighbour, grant that, by keeping your precepts, we may merit to attain eternal life. 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.
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