Deacon Greg 7-31-22
Today’s Word offers one of the most sobering phrases that you’ll ever hear in Scripture: “All things are vanity…” The sobering part is that this sounds like it’s saying that this all just a waste of time. “For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun?” NOTHING! Now this tone of futility in today’s First Reading from Ecclesiastes, one of the Wisdom Books of Solomon, seems to be quite the “downer,” but these books are very dedicated to a reflection on the value of wisdom in the midst of the reality of life, and how it moves on in the same vain for all of us! For example, here’s another verse from one of the Wisdom Books attributed to King Solomon: This one, appropriately is from the Book of Wisdom (aptly titled – don’t you think?): “Those who despise wisdom and instruction are doomed. Vain is their hope, fruitless their labors, and worthless [are] their works.” Scholars tell us that the phrase, “Vanity of vanities” is a Hebr