That might be where some of us learned what vanity
is…. Vanity is self-centeredness or conceit.
Imagine a guy who is constantly checking his reflection in the mirror – we
can him ‘vain’ – thinking the world revolves around him.
That’s kinda like another meaning of vanity which
may be familiar to us… the little counter in your bathroom or bedroom where you
wash your face and fix your make-up…. Again – it’s vanity – all about looking
at your SELF. self-centeredness.
But when I hear this reading, I get the impression
he’s saying everything is useless – worthless – a waste of time - a futile effort. Isn’t that how it hits most of us? So which is it? Conceit or Worthless?
Let’s do a little scripture study. See – when St. Jerome translated the original
Hebrew text into Latin, he translated the Hebrew word ‘hebel’ as ‘vanitas’… and
‘vanitas’ was later translated to English as ‘vanity’.
But the original word ‘hebel’ would typically be
used to represent vapor,
fog, steam, breeze or breath. Notice – every one of those things is passing…
non-permanent… picture opening a pot of boiling water and all the steam comes
out – but 10 seconds later, that steam is gone.
So – ‘hebel’ really is implying something that comes and goes… it lacks
substance or permanence…
So – the
writer of that reading is saying – everything we do on this earth is vanity –
it is without substance – it is non-permanent….it’s here then it’s gone. Why waste your life working for stuff that is
like vapor?
That
matches up with what Jesus says in the
Gospel… You
fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom
will they belong?’
Why
waste our time in our brief life concentrating on building wealth which will
just be left to somebody else who didn’t work for it? It occurs to me, that by leaving a large
inheritance to our kids, we also deprive them of learning the value of a dollar
and the value of hard-work. Don’t get me
wrong – an inheritance is a good thing – in fact, the Bible says in another
place that a wise man leaves an inheritance for his children. But today’s reading puts a cap on that… why
spend your whole life working so that your kids and grandkids can sit in the
lap of luxury and waste their lives away??
Is money bad – no – it’s a necessary means of
supporting yourself and your family.
Is working a bad thing – no – in fact, to work hard
at a job worth doing is one of the greatest gifts that life offers… but… if
work becomes our goal and we focus all of our life, effort, attention to it –
then it becomes our god. I know this is
a real danger especially for Men, but some for women as well. It is in working hard that we feel like we’re
fulfilling our purpose in life. We get
such a good feeling out of it that we can easily become work-a-holics and
center our lives around work. This is
exactly what the reading is warning us about.
It is vanity for us to invest all of our time and energy into building
wealth when it will all be left to somebody who didn’t earn it. Not only are we wasting our effort, but we’re
depriving our next generation of the good feeling from working hard. God gave us the ability to build wealth… but
is that the purpose he gave it for??
That goes for everything in life – our possessions,
how we spend our time, what we read or watch or think about. All of this is passing.. it is like
vapor. In the big picture, it is
insignificant and unimportant. And that
really fits both of our definitions of vanity… it is all passing or worthless….and
it’s all self-centered…. All is vanity.
So – what are we SUPPOSED to do? The last line of the Gospel gives us a good
clue: “Thus
will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in
what matters to God.”
How can
we be “rich in what matters to God”? I
could give you some answers right now – but you probably wouldn’t really
listen. None of us wants to be told what
to do. Instead – each of us has to
answer that question for ourselves.
Every moment of every day, we have to ask – is this helping me become
rich in what matters to God? Add that to
your prayer – what IS it that matters in life?
What is my goal? What is my
purpose? See – until we decide that the
most important thing is to live for God, then all of the other stuff in life
will continue to block out God – like fog blinding us from seeing our true
destination. Here’s the point of the
readings: All of our ‘stuff’ is fog –
and one day when we die, the fog will lift – and we’ll be left standing face to
face with God – and realize that everything else has been in vain.
(I can
just imagine God singing Carly Simon’s song to me – with slightly different
words – “You’re so vain, you prob-ly think that LIFE is about you……don’t you”. )
No comments:
Post a Comment