It is hard to believe, but this summer marks 25 years since Princess Diana of England was killed in a tragic car accident in a tunnel in the city of Paris. Not only being a famous princess, Princess Diana earned the love, respect, and admiration of many throughout the world for her charity work and for the way she reached out to the poor and oppressed of the world in great love and compassion. More than 2.5 billion people around the world watched her funeral on TV in 1997. Her friend, singer Elton John, brought tears to the eyes of many when he sang his song “Candle in the Wind” at her funeral. Yes, the flame of a candle can go out so easily with the blow of wind. Indeed, our life here on earth is very fragile. We can live to an old age, or we can die when we are young, but all of us will die one day when our earthly lives will come to an end.
The words from the book of Ecclesiastes gets our attention this morning: “Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” On the surface, those words might appear pessimistic and cynical, but what do they really mean? The Hebrew word “hebel” that is translated into the English word “vanity,” literally means breath or, more specifically, for the fleeting vapor we see when we breathe into cold air. Ecclesiastes is telling us that life can be like a fleeting breath, filled with emptiness and futility. We human beings often attach ourselves to material things, thinking that these things will make us more secure or more appealing, that these material things will satisfy our desires and our needs and make us feel like we have meaning in life. But these things often leave us empty and wanting more, especially when we compare them to the eternal life that awaits us in God’s kingdom. Perhaps the message from Ecclesiastes is not very comforting as it calls us to reflect upon life and our earthly existence.
Giving thanks to God is not only an essential part of our Christian faith, but gratitude and thanksgiving are important parts of our secular world as well. Think of how the holiday of Thanksgiving is an important part of the fabric of American society. Saying thank you to someone is one of the first things we learn to do as a child. In today’s Gospel, the Jewish tradition of the rich man with a bountiful harvest would call upon him to give thanks to the Lord in the form of prayers, fasting, and almsgiving. Yet, instead, the rich man hoards his riches, sharing them neither with God nor with his neighbor. Instead, he plans to enjoy himself, to “eat, drink, and be merry.” The values of our faith see him as foolish because he puts all his trust in his material treasures, not in God. He cannot see beyond himself, being selfish to his very core. The rich man gave no thought to the poor and the hungry. He did not think about the laborers who brought in the harvest for him. He feels no responsibility to share his blessings with them. This foolish rich man is perhaps exemplified by this Roman proverb: “Money is like sea water; the more a man drinks, the thirstier he becomes.”
This Sunday happens to be the feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Before his conversion of faith, Ignatius would have had an attitude very similar to the rich man in the Gospel. Ignatius was born in the Basque Country of Spain in 1491, the year before Columbus sailed for America. He was was the youngest of 11 children. He was trained to be a member of the royal court and to be a solider. He lived the life of a knight in medieval Spain, which included partying and carousing and enjoying the material pleasures of life. However, while fighting at the Battle of Pamplona in 1621, he suffered a broken leg that had to be re-broken after it did not heal properly. His friends carried him more than a hundred miles from the battle site back to his family’s ancestral home. Ignatius was confined to his bed for a long period of time during his recuperation from his injuries, where he read books about saints such Francis of Assisi and about the life of Christ. This brought about a profound conversion of faith. After spending time living as a hermit in a cave and journeying as a pilgrim, he reflected profoundly on his life. He enrolled in the university of Paris at the age of 30 to become a priest, a very advanced age to be in formation for the priesthood in that era. He had to study Latin with young boys in order to get ready for his study of theology. Even though Ignatius had turned his back on God for most of his early life, he now opened his life to God and to God’s will for him. From the humble beginnings of his conversion, to the spiritual exercises he developed to help discern God’s will, to the way he saw gratitude and thanksgiving as an essential part of our journey of faith, Ignatius of Loyola went on to found the religious order of the Society of Jesus, commonly called the Jesuits, an order of priests that still has a great influence in Catholicism today.
St Ignatius of Loyola was able to get beyond the vanities that attracted him in life. In our own life of faith, we can easily get distracted by vanities as well, things that can hold us back in our journey of faith. Our readings today call out to us to look at our priorities in life, at the things we consider to be our treasures. May we ask the Lord to help us grow in our holiness and to help us be true disciples.
I want to close with the Anima Christi prayer. It is included in the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises which St Ignatius wrote. Being that this prayer is very closely associated with St Ignatius, it is often been mistakenly attributed to him as to it’s authorship. However, Church historians believe that this prayer is probably several hundred years older than St Ignatius. This prayer recalls Jesus’ passion and his body and blood, which is why it is frequently said by individuals after receiving Holy Communion.
Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me. O Good Jesus, hear me. Within your wounds hide me. Permit me not to be separated from you. From the wicked foe, defend me. At the hour of my death, call me and bid me come to you That with your saints I may praise you For ever and ever. Amen.
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