Re: Vanity of Vanities, All Are Vanities!

"... there is not Greek and Jew,... barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all." All these, & more because ".. you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, ... renewed ... in the image of its Creator." from this Sunday's 2nd Reading of St. Paul to the Colossians.

Christ is all and in all.

Mark this phrase, this clause. This is key to understanding the paradox behind this Sunday’s Readings. Why paradox? Where is the paradox?

Here it is: From one side we hear the following discouraging or menacing words both from Jesus himself, and from the book of Ecclesiastes. The warning from Jesus: "You fool, this night your life will be demanded from you, and the things you have prepared to whom will they belong? Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves, but are not rich in what matters to God." Then also from Ecclesiastes: ".. Vanity of vanities, all things are vanities!" And Fr. Edwin defines for us the word vanity, ie. something that is lacking in substance. In other words, something that is not the most important.

So both quotes tell us that per bottom-line understanding that things in life in so far as they all TERMINATE, or rather can be terminated by God; therefore such things lose value or importance.

Yet from the other side of the coin we were told in Genesis, "God created man in his image ....; God blessed them, saying: ‘Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominions over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.... I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food. God had looked at everything he had made, and he found it VERY GOOD."

There it is the paradox! A seeming contradiction, like we say about a paradox.

And so which should be our attitude? Isn’t it true that we find things in life to more often than not disappointing, disgusting, and even tragically sad, eg. innocent murdered in abortion, lives lived legless, armless, without hearing, without sight, even "mind"-less, or nearly w/o faculties? Also consider the toil of having to work, like the Lord also said, in order to be able to eat! The the non-stop misunderstanding, miscommunication, and outright lying between peoples. Finally, that from dust we get to become dust!

Let me add here quotes from Fr. Edwin:".. According to the teaching of Jesus, this is all a deceitful illusion... " the thinking that for example, ".. the amassing of power are the means .. to guarantee .... good life, well-being, and the ultimate control of everything..", which to repeat Fr. Edwin, ".. is all a deceitful illusion that will always promise more than it can ever deliver."

Fr. Edwin continued, ".. The admiration of others, power, and influence all lack substance. They are here today and gone tomorrow." And here are some final thoughts from Fr. Edwin to further emphasize the vanity characteristic about human attitudes vs earthly possessions or gifts: ".. Our lesson shows the personal and social vices resulting from being possessed. We are diminished when things we possess end up possessing us. Being self-possessed is a condition which results from being seduced by self-centered, self-gratifying, self-serving patterns of

society." Fr. describes the pathetic conditions of all human beings who are so in-love with their possessions or gifts, ie the "ME first mentality", or the human pride that is characterized by the attitude, "Take it away from me over my dead body!"

Indeed, on the one hand, this Sunday is the Sunday of the year marking and highlighting the negatives about life. Like the First Reading reminds us, man ".. All his day’s sorrows and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest. This is also vanity." In all honesty to live is to live putting up with all kinds of barriers, inside and out. Try to do a single honest good act; and you can be sure there will be an obstacle lurking by to stop it or to make it hardly possible. Handell did compose his Messiah not without nights and days of personal agony. Before he produced Messiah with it most uplifting finale he had to endure endless moments of personal/psychological depression. Then remember another renown composer, Beethhoven. He composed and finished his Symphony # 9, Ode to Joy; but somehow could in no way enjoy to listen to his own masterpiece, as he had lost his hearing right prior to his composing it. BITTERSWEET lives! Michael Jordan after one of his NBA championships had to deal with his father murdered while taking nap on the road, and while he was preoccupied by his marital divorce. Kobe Bryant! Prior to his last two championship, he was the but of jokes and jeers per his getting sued for sexual molestation by some obscure woman, where ever the Lakers played all over the country. Re: Finance. Many a Real Estate Broker-Agents were gleefully in ownership of tens of hundred thousands properties. Then after the Real Estate bubble, they ended up owning up instead million dollar debts, and some had to declare bankcruptcies. Madoff, who once owned $50 billion dollars of financial assets is now in jail, along with similar others.

Now let us have a look about ourselves. How many times did we have some exciting and fun days or fun nights, only to always wake up worried and afraid how we shall do the following day? Like, what am I going to do with this or that pestering problem, whether of personal finances or of some emotional hurt we continually have to put up with this or that person? How about LOVE, that which we spell L-O-V-E? Do we get the love we deserve? Or is it not much more than, "You stroked my back, because I first stroked your’s?"

Now back to the above phrase I asked you to mark down: Christ is all and in all.

Whatsoever we have or do, if we are having it/using it, and doing something in the name of Christ, ie. in the name of love; then it is not vanity at all, and we do not need be afraid God will punish us for it. The key is, again back to the top statements, ".. because ".. you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, (you are now)... renewed ... in the image of its Creator." And anything and everything you do in your new self is not bound to be vanity but can only make you pleasing to the Lord, and even be fully at peace with yourselves. For like my favorite quote of St. Augustine, we are ever restless; but not anymore until we REST IN GOD!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.