What do you value
most?
Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! The
Book of Ecclesiastes is mostly a downer.
Its author Qoheleth spends a great deal of time reminding people that,
in the end, whatever they have worked for in this life will prove worthless. Achievements, success, possessions, even
wisdom if acquired only to impress others is ultimately of little use. So why
bother? A bit further on, however, Qoheleth
will also note that God has placed the
eternal within each of us – and only this eternal is (by definition) of lasting value. Only the eternal love of God offers us
security beyond the tangible; only a life lived in relationship with God, for
the sake of God, can offer us the wisdom
of heart of which Psalm 90 speaks.
Such wisdom allows us to number our days aright, to let our
hearts expand, to see as God sees. God
is a power beyond our comprehension, a power at work in our lives,
extraordinary, not because we have earned it but because God loves us – if only
we keep our hearts open, not hardened,
receptive to the gifts of the Lord.
In Luke’s Gospel,
Jesus shares essentially the same message with the crowds gathered to hear him
preach. Both the man who demands his inheritance from a greedy brother and
the man who wants a bigger barn to store his harvest have missed the
point: they may covet earthly treasure but they are not rich in what matters to God. Paul will be clear on this point to the
Colossians: seek what is above, he tells them, for your life is hidden with Christ in God. We were baptized into a life where self-focus
has no place; we are given a new garment, Christ himself, to put on. But if we
don’t live from it as a new identity, then it is merely veneer; it doesn’t
define who we are or what we value.
Ultimately, Christianity calls us to value the eternal, an eternal
expressed imperfectly in this life in the connections we make with each other,
in the gifts we share with our community, in the love that is Christ alive
among us, with us – only that love lasts forever; only that love is worth
living until we know perfect love, perfect union, in heaven.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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