Conflicting Rx's - Following Vanity vs. Hurry to the Joy

As a quick aside, I've been delinquent due to some technical difficulties as well as some out-and-out laxity! Thank you for your patience.  You are all in my prayers this Easter Season, as I hope I am in yours....

This is an update of a previous posting with some corrections and the images reinserted.

"'Vanity of Vanities, and all life is vanity,' (Eccl 1:2), except to love God and serve Him alone. This is the highest wisdom, by setting aside worldly activities to tend to the heavenly kingdom."

Thomas probably would have liked power-point!  This next section, which follows his paragraph 3 admonition, is a set of bullet points: 

• 4. It is vanity to seek after  or to trust riches - which must perish in time.
• It is vanity also to be ambitious of honors and to raise oneself to a high station.
  
  
• It is vanity to follow fleshly desires and to desire that for which you must afterwards be grievously punished.
• It is vanity to wish for a long life and then to take little care of leading a good life.
• It is vanity also to only pay attention to this present life and not to look forward to those things which are to come in eternity. 

• It is vanity to love that which passes quickly and yet not to hurry wherever ever-lasting joy remains.

Thomas is not condemning, but rather warning that these excesses lead us into a place that is void of goodness and joy. It is OK to love your self. Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourself.  It is vanity to be so self-absorbed, however, in the typical meaning of vanity.  That's not love of self.  It's also OK to be rich and to seek and hold positions of honor, but not to sacrifice our souls to gain these same positions. It's good to live a long life, as long as that life is a good, meaningful, frutful life.  A good life consists in doing God's will, helping others, treating others well (at a minimum) and more.  Thomas recommends that we slow down a bit, but not be afraid to hurry into God's arms.  That's where the joy will be found.

5. Recall the proverb: "The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear filled with hearing ( Eccl 1:8 )."  Study therefore to withdraw your heart and the love of visible worldly things, and to turn your focus to the invisible.  For they that follow their sensuality defile their conscience and lose the grace of God.

Thomas finishes Chapter 1 with another quote from Ecclesiastes. We can let our eyes and ears and other senses dominate our minds and hearts, and lead us into self-consumption; or we can look to the faith and the Savior to pull us out of the muck. The invisible world exists just as truly as air exists and is provable by blowing up a baloon.   That invisible world of the Spirit is truly there - filled with angels, saints....and yes, all the bad stuff as well. All of which needs to be acknowledged for good or ill, and for the help that may be had at the beginning of a prayer.  As a child, I was taught to simply ask for my guardian angel to help me, or my patron saint, or a saintly deceased relative: "Uncle Vernon, please pray for me.  Please ask Jesus to help me."  The focus on the invisible is just like focusing on the visible.  However, it takes some practice, just as a newborn takes up to 8 months to fully develop eyesight, it will take some time and effort to "see" the invisible.

Back to vanity: what's the answer to all this vanity?  That's what the rest of Book 1 is all about. Thomas' prescription is to read the rest of Book 1. As you'll see in Chapter 2, Thomas starts by telling us to have a humble opinion of ourself. That'll be our first RX.

Thank you for reading and praying along with me. 'Til next time, be Imitators of Christ!

tim
 

*nb. If you haven't read this incredible Old Testament wisdom book, I highly recommend it.  It's not very long (12 Chapters) wherein Solomon concludes, after having the ability to pursue anything of interest to him, that everything is vanity and a chasing after the wind.  Knowing, loving and serving God are the answer.

"The last word, when all is heard: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man's all; because God will bring to judgment every work, with all its hidden qualities, whether good or bad." Eccl 12:13-14.