Word to the Wise
Thursday, September 27, 2012 - Thursday in the 25th Week in Ordinary Time
[Eccl/Qoh 1:2-11 and Luke 9:7-9]Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun? .....What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, "See, this is new!" has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
One wonders what Qoheleth, the voice of the Book of Ecclesiastes, would think about the crowds that lined up to buy the latest I-phone! A cartoon in the Sunday newspaper showed an immense throng with one voice saying, "This line for I-phone 5 is insane!" Another voice replies, "I'm in line for I-phone 6!" The pace of change in some areas of modern life is mind and body boggling! Indeed, the invention of the internet and cell phones is creating change of the kind that Qoheleth could never have dreamed of. Yet, his gloomy skepticism is important by reminding us of the value of honest perspective.
It is good for a preacher to test in his own mind what he plans to say by asking, "So what?" Qoholeth is really asking that question today. Given the incredible pace of change, how can anyone have a moment to celebrate any achievement? The focus is so directed at the future that the present seems like a blur, and the past is silenced by the disdainful comment: "That is SO yesterday!" Yet, it was back in 1970 with Alvin Toffler's best-selling book, FUTURE SHOCK, that many of us found a way to describe our sense of bewilderment at the pace of change. Underlying all of this is the question, "Can anything be lasting or eternal?" Our faith in God can become a "fixed point" around which we can gather our internal resources, take a deep breath, and say, "So what?" Tomorrow, September 28, we will see Qoheleth's response to all of this. In the meantime, we might consider the example of St. Vincent De Paul, whose focus on the present poor is represented in thousands of St. Vincent De Paul Societies in parishes around the world! "The poor you have always with you!" The I-phone 5 you will not! AMEN