PaddlingPadre

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, all things are vanity! I must say that I am rather fond of Ecclesiastes, despite what you might call its pessimistic tone, because of the way in which Qoheleth, it seems to me, has what ought to be the ordinary perspective to have on earthly riches and worldly pursuits, namely, that all is vanity. On this the Psalmist agrees:

A short span you have made my days, and my life is as naught before you; only a breath is any human existence. A phantom only, man goes his ways; like vapor only are his restless pursuits; he heaps up stores, and knows not who will use them,

since, Man, for all his splendor, if he has not prudence, resembles the beasts that perish.

Now if you’ve ever listened to me preach before, then you know that this is no new theme. For what is the worth of earthly possessions in view of the shortness of this life and the weight of eternity? Of what value will worldly riches be when the world itself passes away? Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there, as Job says.

No, in this life we are not at home, and so vainly would we look under the heavens for any lasting peace or comfort. Rather we are pilgrims on a journey, and like the Israelites passing through the desert from Egypt to Canaan, our homeland lies not in this fleeting world, but rather lies ahead, and it is in that place, that promised land towards which we journey, rather than in the barren waste of this desert through which we travel, wherein we must place our hope.

And so Saint Paul exhorts us in our second reading: if you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For insofar as all of us have died with Christ in our baptism, our true life is now hidden with him, who has passed through death, never to die again. Because of this, immortality is vouched safe to us, the second death shall never touch us, and having died with Christ, we have also died to this vain and passing world.

Thus St. Paul continues his exhortation: put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. For you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator. Indeed, for those destined for our heavenly homeland, for those ambitious to enter into God’s peace and reign forever with Christ, the passing goods of this life are such a snare precisely because, when taken as ends in themselves, they tend to excite all of these evils within us, as the concupiscence of our fallen nature, inflamed by worldly allurements, move us to immorality and impurity, to evil desire and greed. And then it is these evil passions, these parts of us that are earthly, which, left unchecked, growing in the soul like the weeds they are, inevitably come to choke out the life of grace within us, killing in us bit by bit even the desire for heavenly things, until we become like unto those Israelites who, longing for the slavery of Egypt with its base comforts, died in the desert, never coming to cross the River Jordan. Hence our Lord’s warning against greed: take care to guard against it, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist in possessions.

And really, this ought to be a warning that we take more seriously, especially given the culture in which we live and the affluence which many of us enjoy. For it is easy to hear this warning against greed, easy to hear St. Paul’s exhortation that we live for the things of heaven and not of earth, easy to hear Qoheleth lamenting about the vanities of this life, and only half heed the warning. For after all, we have many material comforts, and we are buffeted by a consumeristic culture that would sell us ever more comforts as a solution to our problems and to our restlessness. Thus, even for those of us who believe the words of scripture, who accept the passing nature of these things and believe that true value is found only in the things of heaven, it is still so very easy to accept the lie, sometimes without even realizing it, that this world is enough for us, that money and reputation and good entertainment, if we only we can get enough of these and in the right combination, will satisfy. Indeed, nearly every aspect of the wider culture pushes us in this direction, and so it is little wonder that, if we are honest with ourselves, many of us Christians may discover that greed and vanity have a high place in our hearts, and that often we do indulge what is earthly, rather than putting it to death and living for the things of heaven.

 And so if we find that we often fail to live as if the goods of this life were all vanity and a chase after wind, if we discover that the things of heaven attract us but half-heartedly, then what is to be done? A few things, I think.

First, as our Lord teaches in this gospel parable, and as St. Benedict puts it in his rule, memento mori¸ keep your death daily before your eyes. For this is the one thing that our worldly culture cannot account for, the one thing that shows up all its allurements as being the empty and vain promises that they are: that none of the goods of this life can be taken with us to the grave. The rich man, when he dies, is no better off than the poorest beggar, for both are on the same sinking ship. Against this, the world can offer us only distraction, and perhaps the hope that death is yet far off, and yet it is never truly very far! The older we get the nearer it comes, and even for those who are yet young, who can say when the hour will arrive? Not all are fated to grow old, and indeed, this very night your life may be demanded of you! And so better to reject the distraction and live in reality: death comes for us all, and sooner perhaps than we think!

This, of course, is not a thought that is meant to lead us to despair (and if it does lead us there, then it surely is a sign that we are too invested in earthly things), but rather the doom of death ought to raise our minds to those heavenly things that death cannot touch. And so the one who keeps death constantly before his eyes does so in order to more easily turn to spiritual matters, to pray more readily, to seek after Christ more completely, to give alms more freely and ungrudgingly, in other words, to make of his life a total offering to Christ, just as Christ offered himself totally to us. And it is that person, the one who takes to heart the lesson of Ecclesiastes, who heeds the exhortation of St. Paul and listens to the warnings of Christ, who is truly prosperous, who is truly rich in the things that matter to God. Such a one can pass through this life untouched, appreciating the good things of this life without becoming ensnared by them, for the life that such a one lives, even while yet on earth is not an earthly life, but is rather a life hidden with Christ in God, such that when Christ appears, then such a one too will appear with him in glory.