18th Sunday of OT, Year C:
Vanity of vanities, all things are
vanity. This Qoheleth guy really seems
like a charmer. I mean he doesn’t exactly
seem like the kind of person you would want to invite over to your house for a
party. He probably wouldn’t want to come
anyway, because parties are vanity too I’m sure. What’s going on with this reading? Is the Bible telling us to be pessimistic and
downcast? I don’t think so. Rather, I think there is a great wisdom to be
learned from our prophet’s straight-forward kind of approach. This has been a
really helpful reading for me as I begin my assignment here at St. Jude’s.
This has been an amazing week in a
lot of ways. I have met lots of new
people, I have had a chance to celebrate Mass, hear confessions, I even had a
wedding today. It has been a great
week. This is a very exciting time for
me in my life. I can’t tell you how
excited I am to be the pastor here at St. Jude’s.
But in the midst of all this
excitement we hear: vanity of vanities, all things are vanity. Basically the prophet is reminding us that in
the midst of all the passing things of our life, we have to keep before us
those things that really matter. I don’t
think the prophet is just telling us to be depressed. Rather, he is telling us that in the varied
experience of the human life there are many things that will take up a lot of
our time and energy. At the end of the
day, many of these things just pass away, they just disappear into the sands of
time. Just stop for a second and think
about everything you did this week.
Think of all the pleasant things, all the difficult things; think about
the exciting things, and the things that caused stress, anger, discouragement,
or anxiety. Now that you have thought
about these things, how many of them will still matter in 20 years? So much of what we do is oftentimes spent on
those things that don’t really matter.
Jesus came to give us
direction. He came to give us
peace. He came to lead us to
salvation. Jesus’ words today in the
parable line up with the words from the prophet: why build those bigger barns
when we never know what the future might bring.
Jesus and Qoheleth both are trying to remind us to stay focused on what
really matters in life.
Now, I’m not saying that everyone
should go home and quit their jobs. I’m
not saying that we can avoid all the little things in our lives. Rather, everything we do we should do it for
God. Everything we do, we should do it
with God. Everything we do, we can only
do it because God gives us the help and strength in order to do it. I think our reading from St. Paul today is a
good one for us to keep in our minds and hearts. He says: put to death those parts of you that
are earthly. And: seek what is above
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God: think of what is above. The bible is not telling us to try to escape
from our human lives; rather, we should turn to God in the midst of our human
lives. We should try to keep before us
those things that really matter.
This is great advice for all of us,
but I found it especially helpful this week as I begin my new assignment. There is so much going on here at St. Jude’s,
it is new and exciting; but, I have to remember to think about what is
above. I have to always keep my eye on
what is the most important. And that is our
relationship with Christ. There are many
responsibilities of a pastor of a parish, but the most important one is to help
lead the parish closer to Christ. I ask
for your prayers that with God’s help I am able to do this. So that all of us at St. Jude’s can keep our
hearts and minds always in communion with Jesus Christ and his Church.
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