Catholic Daily Mass Reading & Meditation for Saturday, 27 September 2014Meditations: Ecclesiastes 11:9 You who are young, make the most of your youth.
Relish your youthful vigor.
Follow the impulses of your heart.
If something looks good to you, pursue it.
But know also that not just anything goes;
You have to answer to God for every last bit of it.
10 Live footloose and fancy-free—
You won’t be young forever.
Youth lasts about as long as smoke.
12:1-2 Honor and enjoy your Creator while you’re still young,
Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes,
Before your vision dims and the world blurs
And the winter years keep you close to the fire.
3-5 In old age, your body no longer serves you so well.
Muscles slacken, grip weakens, joints stiffen.
The shades are pulled down on the world.
You can’t come and go at will. Things grind to a halt.
The hum of the household fades away.
You are wakened now by bird-song.
Hikes to the mountains are a thing of the past.
Even a stroll down the road has its terrors.
Your hair turns apple-blossom white,
Adorning a fragile and impotent matchstick body.
Yes, you’re well on your way to eternal rest,
While your friends make plans for your funeral.
6-7 Life, lovely while it lasts, is soon over.
Life as we know it, precious and beautiful, ends.
The body is put back in the same ground it came from.
The spirit returns to God, who first breathed it.
8 It’s all smoke, nothing but smoke.
The Quester says that everything’s smoke.
Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest
The dust returns to the earth as it once was, and the life breath returns to God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)
Hanging in a small room at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. is Thomas Cole’s famous series entitled The Voyage of Life. These four paintings trace the journey of one man through life. They depict the wonder of childhood, the confidence of youth, the uncertain trials of adulthood, and the surrender of old age. Taken together, Cole’s paintings invite viewers to meditate on their own lives and to ask how they are responding to the various stages they have experienced.
Today’s first reading also paints a picture that invites us to ponder the course and meaning of our lives. The author presents a picture of carefree youth, which progresses into grief-filled adulthood. Hope appears to be dashed by disappointment, and death seems to arrive before anyone can make sense of life. No afterlife is mentioned, either—no reward for being good or consequences for sin. And yet, in the midst of this troubling depiction, the author tells us that God is still worthy of our devotion and that his commands are the noblest way to live. He seems to be telling us, “Chin up! Duty is its own reward.”
Imagine if Qoheleth, the author, had had a peek at what was to be revealed in the risen Lord Jesus. If he had had a look, as Cole’s old man did, at the heavenly home being prepared for him, he might well have painted a different picture. Joy and hope would have replaced resignation as he saw that life was more than “vanity of vanities” (Ecclesiastes 12:8).
It is true that we all have our share of difficulties. We all face tragedies that seem to make no sense to us. But as we journey toward our heavenly home, we can choose to focus more on the difficulties or on the hope of heaven. Doesn’t it make more sense to place our confidence in God? Even if our world tries to tell us that this is all there is, we can still choose to lift our eyes to heaven and rejoice in the eternal, purposeful life God has given us.
“Come, Holy Spirit! Lift me up to see the truth of God’s power and mercy and plan for me. Give me a heavenly vision!” Amen!
Psalms 90:3-11 So don’t return us to mud, saying,
“Back to where you came from!”
Patience! You’ve got all the time in the world—whether
a thousand years or a day, it’s all the same to you.
Are we no more to you than a wispy dream,
no more than a blade of grass
That springs up gloriously with the rising sun
and is cut down without a second thought?
Your anger is far and away too much for us;
we’re at the end of our rope.
You keep track of all our sins; every misdeed
since we were children is entered in your books.
All we can remember is that frown on your face.
Is that all we’re ever going to get?
We live for seventy years or so
(with luck we might make it to eighty),
And what do we have to show for it? Trouble.
Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard.
Who can make sense of such rage,
such anger against the very ones who fear you?
12-17 Oh! Teach us to live well!
Teach us to live wisely and well!
Come back, God—how long do we have to wait?—
and treat your servants with kindness for a change.
Surprise us with love at daybreak;
then we’ll skip and dance all the day long.
Make up for the bad times with some good times;
we’ve seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
Let your servants see what you’re best at—
the ways you rule and bless your children.
And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,
confirming the work that we do.
Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!
Luke 9:42-43 While he was coming, the demon slammed him to the ground and threw him into convulsions. Jesus stepped in, ordered the vile spirit gone, healed the boy, and handed him back to his father. They all shook their heads in wonder, astonished at God’s greatness, God’s majestic greatness.
Your Business Is Life
43-44 While they continued to stand around exclaiming over all the things he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, “Treasure and ponder each of these next words: The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into human hands.”
45 They didn’t get what he was saying. It was like he was speaking a foreign language and they couldn’t make heads or tails of it. But they were embarrassed to ask him what he meant.
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