RBWords

     The passage from Ecclesiastes is one of the best-known of the Old Testament.  Many of my generation can remember hearing it put to music "for every season, turn, turn, turn" back in the 60's!  For some, it is a very calming passage that projects the philosophy of another song, "Que sera, sera!"  [What will be, will be.]  For others, it is profoundly deterministic and disturbing!  The "voice" of the book is someone called "Qoheleth" [The Teacher] who says that all the really big decisions about the world and life have been made.  The best we can do is try to enjoy it and not try to be ambitious.

     There is something of Ecclesiastes, it seems to me, in Jesus' advice about not worrying about tomorrow or what we are to wear or eat.  Maybe some of this finds its way into the 12 step advice, "One day at a time."  Others see in it the danger of the powerful telling the powerless to give up trying to change things!  I see in Ecclesiastes an effort to understand God's providence, which is a mystery that unfolds every day.  I do not see it as a call to "fatalism" or passivity.  The commission from Jesus to proclaim the gospel to every nation is not a call to acceptance of injustice, suffering and oppression as somehow the will of God.  I do believe we can pray for the wisdom to know the right "time" for those big things in life and prepare accordingly.  My thanks to Qoheleth for saying it so well.  AMEN