Does Life Have Meaning?

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

“Oh, Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity. Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he must leave property. This also is vanity and a great misfortune. For what profits come to a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun. All his days, sorrow and grief are his occupation. Even at night, his mind is not at rest. This also is vanity.” “Even at night, his mind is not at rest.” It might be surprising to hear this in the Bible. This book that this is taken from is a unique book in in the Bible. And so, I want to focus on this today, and I’m going to be using as a guide, a book by Dr Peter Kreeft. That’s K, R, E, E, F, T, a well-known Catholic philosopher. And this book is called, “You Can Understand the Bible,” so it has a helpful introduction to each one of the books of the Bible. And I would recommend Dr. Kreeft has written a lot of books, very, very interesting books. But he says that in this book, God seems silent. He’s not actually silent, because actually, it’s Him behind this inspiration. But it’s a book that seems to be just a human reflection, just our human reason, and based on human experience, without any appeal to Revelation. So even though it’s a book in Scripture, it seems to be a book of just like human philosophy. And so, it’s a person looking at life, considering looking back on his experience, and trying to make sense of his life and of all that’s going on. And so that’s a common approach; people who are just trying to, through their own experience and knowledge and reflection, trying to understand the world. And so, he says that it’s, in a lot of ways, a very modern book, asking the question, “Does this life have any real meaning?” And that’s a question that is tormenting for a lot of people. Does this life have real meaning? And if it’s not tormenting for you, it’s good to know that for a lot of people, it is. So, it’s an important question, and the person writing this book is very, very honest about what he sees and what he experiences, and he’s asking this important question. That’s very important, because if there is no good answer to this question, then that leads to despair, a despair that a lot of people have experienced. So, it’s an important question. And it’s striking, and this is something so typical of Scripture that it doesn’t hesitate to ask very frankly, very honestly, these difficult questions. This book of the Bible is presenting so boldly these difficult questions, and in a sense, the rest of the Bible is response to these questions. And so, the word vanity, the way the word vanity is being used here, means in the sense of something that has no meaning, no purpose. So, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” means nothing really matters, life seems meaningless. As Dr Kreeft says, “For the thing we need most of all, meaning and purpose and hope, a reason to live and a reason to die, is precisely the thing that’s being questioned in this book.” And so that life can seem just like a desert, empty. And so, he sees in this book five different attempts in human experience to try to find meaning in our life. And one is noble, through human wisdom, through philosophy, through human wisdom, through human reason, to try to understand and make sense of this world. But it shows that that also is still insufficient. Another, which is very common, is just pleasure. Just try to just try to live, to get the most pleasure out of life. Another is wealth and power, the most wealth, the most power. Another one, the fourth one he looks at, is more noble, but it’s to live for honor, for prestige, for work, to leave a legacy for posterity. But that also is ultimately insufficient. And the fifth one, he says, Is religion in a sense of a religion that is external, conventional, legalistic. And that also fails to really give the ultimate meaning. He says, “All these fail because our hearts have an infinite desire, and none of these limited answers can respond to the infinite desire in the human heart.” And so modern life, our life today, tries to cover this up with 1000s of different diversions, distractions. He says, “We are the most entertained civilization in history. But that’s a distraction, not a fulfillment.” And this book gives different reasons for why this life seems just vanity and emptiness. One reason is because a blind fate seems to rule life, so that nothing really makes any difference, neither being wise or foolish, neither being good or evil really seems to matter. In the end, things just seem to happen without any rhyme or reason. It doesn’t always seem like the good people are rewarded and the evil people are punished. Another is because we see nothing beyond death. It seems like even if you work hard, it all goes down the drain, since we don’t see anything beyond death. Another is that our life, as he says, is full of evil and injustice. There’s so much evil, so much injustice in this world, which seems to make a mockery of justice. And an idea that was very common, especially in ancient times, was that time just seems to be a cycle that’s not really going anyplace. And the final reason he sees in this book for the vanity is that God Himself seems to be a part of the problem, rather than a part of the solution. For without faith and divine revelation, mere human experience and reason cannot understand God and His ways; His purposes, remain hidden and unknowable. It’s a God who just seems so far away from us, who’s not really helping us in our life. And so, the words like we find in the Gospel are rooted in this book. One conclusion is, just eat, drink and be merry, because tomorrow we die. That is, just make the best you can each day, because in the end, nothing really matters. Death, death, death destroys everything. And so again, it might seem striking to find a book like this in the Bible, but the Bible is not trying to cherry coat the real challenges of our human experience. And this book is actually very valuable because it’s expressing the deepest longing of the human heart, the deepest longing that nothing can fill; that is, there’s an infinite longing in our heart that nothing can fill except He who is infinite. And so, it’s like an invitation to find this book in the Word of God. It’s like God Himself inviting us to bring to Him all our own doubts and struggles, to just be honest. This book is a very honest book. And we were talking last week about prayer, as talking honestly, frankly to God. And this book is a good example of being very frank and honest about what we’re experiencing, not like trying to sweep them under the carpet. There’s the famous phrase of St Augustine, “Thou hast made us for thyself, and therefore our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” Our hearts are restless, and they can only rest in God. And so, in conclusion, this book of Ecclesiastes highlights the problem. This book is raising the question, and the only answer is Jesus Christ.  Jesus, who invites us to bring to Him our doubts, our struggles, our questions. He who is the fullness of truth, the way that leads to a life that is not empty, is not vanity, but is joy and abundance. He, who is the fulfillment of the deepest longing of our heart, our thirst for infinite love. And so, as we’re living this month of August with our Blessed Mother, seat of wisdom, in this Mass we have the opportunity to come to Jesus with all our doubts, all our questions, all our struggles, to bring those all to Him. And I’m going to end just by quoting from this passage we had of St Paul’s letter to the Colossians. “Brothers and sisters, if you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with Him in glory.” Amen. 

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Luke 12:13-21