Thursday of the
Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
(Ecclesiastes 1:2-11; Luke 9:7-9)
The IPhone 7 premiered last week. You can take it under water, and it works
faster than previous generations. But
don’t expect it to satisfy all you needs.
More than likely you will find yourself with similar problems to the
ones you have always had. IPhone 7 won’t
make you more prompt or more attentive. As Qoheleth testifies in today’s first
reading, there is “(n)othing new under the sun.”
What might change our lives, however, is a fresh relationship. A new friend can give us insight into other’s
lives and our own. Talk with a new
African-American friend about racial harassment, and you probably will learn
how much it still hurts. Or talk with a
new teacher friend, and you may be surprised at how educators find testing interfering
with learning. One friendship that we
definitely want to cultivate is that with Jesus.
Today’s gospel says that Herod the tetrarch wanted to
visit with Jesus. We should be doubly
eager to do so. He will move us from a preoccupation
with IPhones to a sincere concern about the people around us. He will also show us how to change our
unhelpful habits. Qoheleth could not
have had friendship with Jesus in mind when he said nothing is new.
