Thursday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Vanity of Vanities. All things are vanity! What way to start? “What profit has a person from all the things labored at under the sun?”
So begins the Book of Ecclesiastes. And it does not sound very encouraging either. “One generation passes to another.”
This book serves as a corrective to puffed-up egos, overconfidence, bragging, and the like. It kind of puts us in our places—we are created in the image of God, redeemed children of God. Those are out destiny. But while human beings walk the face of the earth, they struggle. One thing after another. Everything is pretty much the same… ho-hum.
Scholars have asked the question—is Qoheleth depressed? Or is he writing from a realistic point of view? Maybe a little bit of both? There is nothing new under the sun. Even when we think something is new. It is not but has been around before. So, does this mean everything is futile, of no consequence? Something we truly labor with, struggle with all our days?
The verse, “All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going,” is reminiscent of the last lines of the movie, A River Runs through it. The finals words from Norman in the movie are, “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.”
These lines from the film have a similar tone as the words of Qoheleth. Life is about the passing of time. As one’s days ebb and flow, there is a clear rhythm to everything. It does not mean things are futile, but more so that life’s journey encounters many things. The flow of it all is the seasons of a person’s life. Time. From the Easter Vigil: “Christ, yesterday and today, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega. All time belongs to him and all the ages; to him be glory and power through every age forever.”
Reflection by Fr. Peter Ullrich, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections