Thursday of the 25th week in Ordinary Time Year A, 24th September, 2020.

 Readings: Eccl. 1:2-11, Ps.90, Luke 9:7-9

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

WITHOUT GOD, EVERYTHING IN LIFE WILL BE VANITY VANISHING

The emptiness and shortness of this life make me to reflect on my future as a human person. The question that comes to my mind is: "where will you and I and the beautiful things of this world be in the nearest future? The deep silence in my soul could not offer me any answer to this question rather, it exposed me to the foolishness of human greedy, selfishness and pride. 

Little wonder our first reading today taken from the book of Ecclesiastes, tells us that vanity of vanities. All is vanity! For what does a man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun, today we are alive, tomorrow we are no more. Generation goes, and generation comes, but the earth remains forever. Acquiring wealth later to realize at death bed that all is vanity vanishing. Thus, we are meant to know that there are many things in this world that are beyond human comprehension and understanding, because God’s ways of doing things are beyond human capacity to understand fully his plan. All we need to do is to remain docile and faithfully follow his plans for us.

For failure to do this we will be like Herod in our Gospel passage today, who out of pride and selfishness had killed John the Baptist thinking that by that he could silence the voice of truth, but when he heard of the great works of Jesus and could not comprehend it, he perceived that John the Baptist, the voice of truth had returned to life again. This is what happens to us whenever we tried to take the role God in our relationship with others. And this ugly attitude is what a lot of people are practicing today and as a result many people are suffering the consequences. This is because most of us are so much attached to worldly things. We have let our pride, our ego and our selfish desires to blind fold us from the true realities of life. 

Dear friends, what is the essence of our existence in this world? What does God really required from us in this life? Do you know that without God everything in life is vanity vanishing? Therefore, let us not be carried away by the beauty of the things of this passing world, for nothing last forever. Hence we should remain steadfast in our faith in God, who has called us to love him and to love one another, for that is all God has required from us in this life.

LET US PRAY: Lord God, we are so much attached to things of this passing world, with little or no attention to your teachings. Make us to realized that without you life and all we have is nothing but vanity. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a fruitful day.