Eighteenth Sunday August 5, 2007

Ecclesiastes 2: 21-23 Ps 90 Col 3: 1-3, 9-11 Luke 12: 13-21

vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

1. In 1973, Carly Simon sang the #1 hit, “You’re so vain”. You re so vain if you think this song is about you. We have met people who are vain. We think of them as stuck up or even arrogant.

However in our first reading, when we hear the words “vanity of vanities” - it can be sort of misleading. It has nothing to do with pride or arrogance. It would be better to speak of “nothingness” or something illusionary. Everything we put our hope and trust in - especially material things, is so illusionary and flimsy. They will never support us in our needs, they will never satisfy our desires. It is like the fog and mist that disappear in the strong sunlight.

We put our hope in the $s and ¢ - and we find that they are devalued like the German Mark after the war, or the Zimbabwean currency which devalued at the rate of 4530% this year. You can get 242,000 ZWD for $1 or to put it more crudely: With a five dollar bill, you are a millionaire.

2. Glory is fleeting as Poet Percy Shelley tells us in the poem: Ozymandias. He proclaimed himself King of Kings. He commanded people to look on him and despair because he had power over life and death. But today all that is left of him is “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone that stand in a desert” - and for most of us we do not even know where that desert is.

Reading this, we would at first sight feel a sense of despair and an attitude of “what is the use of trying.” And yet from what is going around us even this weekend in Toronto, we see signs of laughter and fun and hope. The Caribbana is in full swing. People are singing in the parades. The shops are making a roaring business. The lines in front of the liquor stores twist around the building. Eat drink and be merry is the motto of the day.

3. The purpose of Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth is not to lead us to a sense of doom and gloom, but rather to put things into perspective. What is it that really matters. If I ask people around us they will say family, health and peace. I just came home from celebrating Mass at my mother’s place. It is her 88th birthday, my brothers and their families were there. As I sat there, I thought - she is so happy and proud to be here. The phone was ringing of the hook as her friends in their eighties and nineties were calling to wish her.

Then I realised that although things are passing, and the things we hoard and treasure will soon pass, we can have happiness and peace and joy if we invest in people. Our happiness and joy in no so much in achieving a goal, but in the effort, energy and love we put into it. As one wise person said, “Happiness is a journey, not a destination.”

4. In our gospel, we hear Jesus speaking in the same vein. Here is a rich man who has success and wealth. And he dream dreams and plans to carve his name in stone and buildings. The emphasis has shifted a little. Here Jesus speaks about how unpredictable our life is. We are here to day and gone tomorrow. Actually, many of us even though we do not have the riches of the man in the Gospel, still plan and dream like him. How often have we said, “if I win the Lotto 649". When they talk to me, they will always say, “I will give a big donation to the Church, or pay of the Church debt, or put in airconditioners in the church to help on a hot day like today.” In our minds we think it is justifiable to win that money if we give a percentage back to God. The reality is that we have within ourselves everything that will keep us content and happy. The point is to find it.

5. A certain wise Muslim called Nasaruddin had lost his donkey. He made an announcement in the market place, “Who ever finds my donkey, I will give it to him as a gift.” The villagers said to him, but Nasaruddin, you do not make any sense. What is the point of finding the donkey if you are going to give him away.

Quite the contrary, said Nasaruddin, if I find the donkey, I will have two gifts. The first I will have the pleasure of seeing the donkey. The second, I will have the joy of giving away something I treasure very much.

Trust in the Lord and trust in the riches and gifts the Lord has given each one of us by making us who we are, or as the little children in the kindergarten would sing: “Thank you Lord for making me, me!”