Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 30, 2006 - 25th Saturday in Ordinary Time
[Ecclesiastes 11:9 - 12:8 and Luke 9:43b-45]Rejoice, O Youth, while you are young and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart, the vision of your eyes; Yet understand that as regards all this God will bring you to judgment.
For much of my life I have been saying words similar to those of Ecclesiastes to college students. I tell them to follow the vision of their hearts to the goals that they have set for themselves. All those who work with young people want to give them hope. Even as I write this, I sit at the table with a teacher who works with young medical students. He tells me that it is important for them to give their patients hope. It is also important for the student to have hope. Ecclesiastes says yes to hope but only for this life. This is where Christian hope parts company with him. We see life as longer than the years that physical life give us. This gives a perspective to our lives here but does not devalue them. As a campus minister, I receive as much hope as I give to students. Their optimism and hope for their own futures, even if in the characteristic mode of their age they think they will live forever, give hope to me in my own advancing years. The hope that scripture offers is tempered by the understanding that our human mistakes are subject to accountability and that not all will go well for us. That is no reason for not hoping - it is a reason for wisdom and wisdom is something that youth can only acquire with years and experience. The wise physician-professor with whom I am sharing this experience of Ecclesiastes sees the way for the young medical students as a "Go for it!" spirit. I share that and also say that while Ecclesiastes warns with characteristic pessimism, his judgment is not final. AMEN
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