“Vanity of vanities, all things are
vanity,” says Quoheleth, the author of Ecclesiastes. If life is nothing but a vanity, why should
we have faith? Quoheleth looked at his
world, and saw that not every act of goodness was rewarded, that evil sometimes
went unpunished. A person could be
tempted to give up on the world, to give up on God, to live a self-centered
life, to live for today and leave the consequences for tomorrow.
Quoheleth looked at the ancient world
in which he lived, and saw that it was essentially a changeless world. The environment, culture, and lifestyles
essentially remained the same from generation to generation. Was there nothing we could do for things to
change?
But, perhaps the author of Ecclesiastes
is not trying to depress us, but rather to challenge us to enter a deeper
spiritual quest in our lives. We will
never be able to master the world, to explain the mysteries of life, or to
justify our own existence. We are faced
with a choice: to either become self-centered and cynical, or to reach out to
God. By turning to God, we do not turn
our backs on the world, but rather we look at the world differently, through
the eyes of our faith, trusting in the power of God, who is master of the
world, the one who can explain the mysteries of life, who can justify our
existence. Through God's eyes, through
the eyes of faith, life has meaning and purpose, it is not just a vanity.
In our modern world, it seems like we
are in constant change. But we are
facing the same questions that Quoheleth asked, as some in our society may be
asking if life is all basically meaningless.
But rather than give up, we can choose the path of our faith, a choice
we must be willing to make daily in our words, in our thoughts, and in our
actions. We are called to choose God and
a life of faith.
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