Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
(Ecclesiastes 1: 2-11; Luke 9:7-9)
How could youth accept the first reading as relevant? They see inventions all the time. Twenty years ago Facebook was cool. Youth used it to communicate without parental
awareness. Now Facebook is mostly used
by older generations to keep track of their families.
But the author, named Qoheleth which simply means preacher,
is not thinking of physical innovations.
He has attitudes and postures in mind.
People whenever and wherever want to be lovely, rich, and famous. They like to consider themselves as better
than average. Surely these pretensions
are vane. Some say, “There is no God” while others reject Scripture’s presentation
of God for their imaginings. These postures
may also be considered vanity.
Ecclesiastes, the musings of the preacher, shake readers up to
reality. It forces them to see their tendencies
to err and sin. But it does not despair about
finding meaning in life. Its conclusions
will hardly contain the full range of life’s possibility. These will be seen only when Jesus Christ
appears on the world stage. But Qoheleth
prepares the world for him.
