20220731 THE VANITY OF LIFE
31 July, 2022, Sunday, 18th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Ecclesiastes 1:2,2:21-23 © |
Vanity of vanities; all is vanity
Vanity of vanities, the Preacher says. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity!
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? What of all his laborious days, his cares of office, his restless nights? This, too, is vanity.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 89(90):3-6,12-14,17 © |
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
You turn men back to dust
and say: ‘Go back, sons of men.’
To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
no more than a watch in the night.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
You sweep men away like a dream,
like the grass which springs up in the morning.
In the morning it springs up and flowers:
by evening it withers and fades.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
Make us know the shortness of our life
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?
Show pity to your servants.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
In the morning, fill us with your love;
we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Let the favour of the Lord be upon us:
give success to the work of our hands.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
Second reading |
Colossians 3:1-5,9-11 © |
You must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is
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. 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. But when Christ is revealed – and he is your life – you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.
That is why you must kill everything in you that belongs only to earthly life: fornication, impurity, guilty passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god; and never tell each other lies. You have stripped off your old behaviour with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its creator; and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Jew, between the circumcised or the uncircumcised, or between barbarian and Scythian, slave and free man. There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn17:17 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your word is truth, O Lord:
consecrate us in the truth.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt5:3 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
How happy are the poor in spirit:
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 12:13-21 © |
Fool! This very night your soul will be demanded of you
A man in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.’ ‘My friend,’ he replied, ‘who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs.’
Then he told them a parable: ‘There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time.” 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?” So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.’
THE VANITY OF LIFE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Eccl 1:2; 2:21-23; Ps 90 OR Ps 95; Col 3:1-5,9-11; Lk 12:13-21]
When the author from the book of Ecclesiastes expressed that life and everything else is vanity, what does he really mean? The word “vanity” is likened to the “mist.” It comes and goes. It does not last, just like the mist which will disappear into thin air.
So when we use the word, “vanity”, in the first place, it could refer to a craving for pleasure, riches, power and fame. The truth is that such things do not last. Pleasures last as long as we are not tired of whatever we are enjoying. But there is always a saturation point, after which, what is enjoyable becomes distasteful and mediocre. Then we have to look for new food to taste, new wine to drink, new places to visit, new forms of entertainment. The wealth that we accumulate will have to be let go eventually because we cannot even bring a single cent to the next world. Whatever wealth we have will be given away when we die, often to undeserving people. Power also cannot last. Those in power often live in fear that they will lose it. At any rate, at some point in time, because of health and age, we will have to let go of our office and all its power. Finally, fame is the most transient and unstable of all because people’s opinions change like the weather. One day they will worship us, the next day they will condemn us, just like what happened to Jesus in the gospel. So for those who seek fame, just know that the higher we climb the heavier the fall.
Indeed, if our life’s purpose is to just to acquire pleasure, wealth, power and fame, we are going to be very disappointed when we actually possess them all. Because often such things take time to acquire, many of us spend our entire life chasing after these things, believing that we will find security and happiness. Unfortunately, when we really arrive, we feel disillusioned. We are no happier than those without great wealth, without power and fame. In fact, wealth can become a burden as we have to protect it and grow it; fame becomes a form of slavery because we lose our privacy, power becomes our enemy because there are many who desire to take power away from us. We have many competitors and detractors.
But this is not what vanity is all about. Vanity need not be the illusory and transient things of this world, but it has to do with purpose and meaning. The preacher said, “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? What of all his laborious days, his cares of office, his restless nights? This, too, is vanity.” He is asking the question of meaning. For all that we do, all the achievements we made, what is the end result? What we strive to build tirelessly over the years are destroyed by the next generation. The wealth and empire we established will be dismantled by the next generation. So looking at history, seeing the rise and fall of monarchy, nations, empires, organizations and companies, we know that we will share the same fate. This is the question of the preacher. Have our efforts therefore been expanded in vain? In other words, for nothing.
This is where we must pray with the psalmist and enter into his wisdom. “Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart. Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever? Show pity to your servants. In the morning, fill us with your love; we shall exult and rejoice all our days. Let the favour of the Lord be upon us: give us success to the work of our hands.”
Today, we are reminded not to repeat the same mistake of the rich and successful farmer in the gospel. In truth, the farmer did nothing wrong. He was rich because he worked hard and was blessed with a good harvest. It was right for him to build bigger barns to store all the grain and goods. Isn’t that what we also hope to do? Many of us work hard and hope to get rich quickly in the early years of our life so that we do not have to work so hard in our later years. In fact, if we could be successful by the time we reach our early forties and have more than enough in our nest egg to last us through our old age, we will want to retire early.
The question is, what do we do after retirement? What do we do when we have made enough for ourselves and even for our children to last us through till we die? This was the mistake of the rich man. He said, “‘My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time.’ 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?'” The tragedy of the rich man was that he lived for himself. He did not live for others. He was concerned about his security, his needs, his enjoyment, his pleasure. But he was blind to the needs of others, to his social responsibility to the community.
Because he sought to find happiness living for himself, he was doomed to misery. This is the warning of our Lord. The more we seek to be rich, powerful and famous for ourselves, the poorer, the more insecure we become. This is because we focus on ourselves. But if we focus on others, how to help them, how to empower them and how to make this world a better place, then we will not be too worried about how rich, how powerful or famous we are. Our energy will be directed towards enabling others and losing ourselves for them. As the Lord tells us in the gospel, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?” (Mt 16:25f)
Indeed, Jesus considers our obsession and attachment to the world as greed. The man who asked Jesus to tell his brother to give him his share of his inheritance was apparently doing so as a matter of justice and fair play. Yet the Lord said, “My friend, who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs.” The fact remains that whilst we might think happiness is attained if there is justice, yet, getting justice alone cannot give us happiness. Rather, it is the man who has a big heart, the man who is not attached to what is his, but shares and gives away generously to others, who is truly liberated and happy. He will not fight over such material things because his happiness and security does not depend on them. He is at peace with himself even when cheated of his rights. This is because he seeks for greater things.
What are these greater things we should seek? St Paul gives us the advice. “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. 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. But when Christ is revealed – and he is your life – you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.” We should seek Christ and His kingdom. This is why anything that contradicts the life of the kingdom should be put aside. “You must kill everything in you that belongs only to earthly life: fornication, impurity, guilty passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god; and never tell each other lies.”
In other words, we must put on our new identity in Christ, which is to live the life of Christ, a life of love and service. St Paul wrote, “You have stripped off your old behaviour with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its creator.” Indeed, the ultimate goal of life is to be formed in Christ’s image and likeness. It is to live a life for others regardless of our position in life. It does not matter who we are, how rich or how powerful we are. All that matters is that we give up our life for others, expending ourselves, our wealth, talents, power and position for the greater good of society and our fellowmen, for the greater glory of God. This is the meaning and purpose of life. Such a life is never lived in vain. The measure of how successful we are in life is not our position, wealth and power or our achievements but how we have given ourselves, emptied ourselves in love and humility for the good of our fellowmen. This is success.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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