18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) [Ecclesiastes 1,2] Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. Sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. What does a person get from all their toil and strain, their toil under the sun?
Despite being an old guy, I try to keep up with the different ways that the world communicates within itself. So yes, I have accounts on Twitter and Instagram and LinkedIn and Facebook. And no, I don’t do Tik-Tok – and I don’t post pictures on Instagram of every meal I have ever eaten. If truth be told, I have those accounts so that I can get a sense of what is happening with people in the world which, let’s face it, are almost all much younger than I am.
Often, I see posts by people who are advising others how to be “successful” in their endeavours. In my day, we found that advice in bookstores, written by skilled authors who had experience in the field – well, enough at least to get picked up by a publisher who would invest money in printing the books. The bookstores were (and still are) full of myriads of approaches to be a success…. to find meaning and purpose in our lives. But nowadays, in this virtualized world, it seems everyone wants to give advice on how to be a success. Whether that is in business or in life, in relationships or in self-help, there are old books and new books and audio books and e-books and podcasts and virtual seminars and influencers and YouTube …. well, you get the point. Most of them purport to be the latest greatest thing in achieving your goals, finding your purpose, discovering your life’s meaning, and being a success.
Unfortunately for them, it has all been said before. By a preacher named Qoheleth in the third century before Christ. Long before smartphones and the internet of things. And no, I didn’t know him personally ..… I’m not quite that old.
Quoheleth looked hard and long at the world and the society he lived in, and came up with one word to describe it – הבל – hevel ….. we often translate that word as “vanity”, but more and more that word has changed its meaning in English. Vanity used to mean emptiness. Nowadays I think it means an over-focus on self and outward appearances. In Qoheleth’s Hebrew, הבל hevel meant “vapour” or “a chase after wind”
Yet, 2300 years later, we continue to chase after things that won’t, that can’t, make us a success in all our endeavours, that can’t provide the happiness and fulfilment we seek. We continue to hevel – we continue to “chase after the wind”. All too often, we continue to spend our lives struggling to climb the ladder of success, seeking to find that place where we will discover meaning and purpose, only to reach the top, and find that it is leaning against the wrong wall.
In my many years of ministry as a Hospital Chaplain, I spend countless hours sitting with people who were dying. And in all of those hundreds of hours and conversations, not once did anyone share with me that they wish they had spent more time at work. Or spent more hours to increase their wealth. Or bought a nicer car or a bigger house. Not once. What they did share was how they wish they had understood earlier in their life what the most important things in life were – things like meaningful time spent with family, or love, freely given and openly received. It seemed that only on their deathbed did they finally understand that success was not predicated on what honours we receive, what jobs we hold, what cars we drive. Success was not about what we have, but who we are.
The problem of those of us not on our deathbeds is that we forget our priorities in life and put all our energy on attaining those things that really are not lasting goals. So we work hard for something that we always wanted. Something that we believe will give our lives meaning and purpose. Then, once we have it, we enjoy it for a little while, but it doesn’t fulfil us, and so we work hard for the next thing.
Qoheleth would look at us, and tell us that we are hevel …. We are ’chasing the wind’.
Today’s readings give you and I an opportunity to take a closer look at our personal concepts of what a successful life would look like – an opportunity to deeply consider our priorities in life. To ponder on the root purpose of our life, to reflect on what is truly meaningful in our lives.
Perhaps I can share an insight that came to me as I reflected on the wisdom that was being imparted by those about to leave this earth. It was this …. The world tells us we are called to a higher standard of living, but God tells us that we are called to a higher order of loving. And in as much as we strive towards a higher order of loving – as we strive to love the unloveable, forgive the unforgivable, to generously do acts of charity, to strive to show compassion and mercy towards all, then we become more and more the reflection of God that we were created to be.
We are a success, we discover our greater purpose, when we practise that higher order of loving in our lives. That was the message I heard from the people I visited who were dying. That is the message that the Apostle Paul gives us over and over again in his letters to the early Christian communities. That is the message from Jesus in todays Gospel. That is the message from Qoheleth some 2300 years ago. All else is vanity. All else is hevel. All else is like chasing the wind.
So, it seems to me that you and I have a choice to make. We can heed the advice of all of those patients who were on the threshold of death and had clarity on what was really important in life. Or we can continue to strive after what the world around would say is meaningful, or important, or will give us a sense of purpose. We can think deeply over the next week about our call to a higher order of loving, and through that find meaning and purpose in our life. Or, we can continue to chase the wind.
Which will you choose?