St Cosmos and St Damian were put to death in the Diocletian persecutions in the Roman empire in the early 4th century. Tradition passes down that they were twin brothers who were originally from Arabia but who studied science together in Syria, working as doctors. They are the patron saints of doctors, surgeons, chemists, and pharmacists. There are some saints from the early Church of whom we don’t know much, but they were revered by the faithful and many stories have been passed down about them.
The words from the book of Ecclesiastes get 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, but it calls us to reflect upon life and our earthly existence.
No comments:
Post a Comment