Thursday, September 22, 2022

FROM VANITY TO GRACE

Meditation for Thursday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time
(Eccl 1:2-11; Lk 9:7-9)

“Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” This popular quote opens up our meditation today. The passage from Ecclesiastes explains how human efforts, with all its weariness, ends up in vanity; a chase after the wind! Does it mean that human life has no value? But the insatiable appetite in man implies that a chase after those appetites cannot give man relevance or value. Another pointer to the vanity of things is the cyclic repetition of events. “And there is nothing new under the sun.” Think about how vain it may be that a lofty human action ends up as a mere repetition of what had been done in the past. Also, imagine how miserable it can be for one to commit his life to achieve something, hoping to derive satisfaction therein, only for that achievement to increase his hunger and restlessness!

 

If we want to go with the flow, we chase after the wind and our lives will have no bearing. If we want to repeat the past, we will be wearied out and become irrelevant to the present. Unless we experience newness and satisfaction, we shall live in terror of the unfolding future. Think about the horrors of Herod as given in the gospel. He beheaded John the Baptist, and did not show any remorse for his evil ways. Something new was happening and the King started shivering because he was still living in his old ways. Herod was perplexed and said, “John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?” And he desired to see Jesus.

 

Without the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, human actions alone will be a repetition of the old, and cannot bring satisfaction and newness. This is vanity! That is why Herod and those like him, who refuse to repent of their ‘old ways’, will always live in fear of the new things to come. “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Is 43:18-19). Jesus is the First Born of all creation (Col 1:15). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). So, Jesus is the center of our lives; it is in Him that our lives have bearing, and from Him we derive value. “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

 

Hence, instead of ‘vanity of vanities’, from Jesus we have all receive grace upon grace (Jn 1:16). Our life is new every day; we live, not to chase after wealth or pleasure, but we live to FOLLOW JESUS. No more shall we live with the weariness and horrors of Herod, but we shall know contentment, newness and peace. Amen.

 

Fr Jude Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R

Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,

Tedi-Muow, Lagos.

Thursday September 22, 2022.

www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

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