All three of today's readings talk about the things of this world being ultimately inconsequential. In today's homily, our visiting priest talked about how the ancient Israelites based their hopes on rewards in this world rather than recognizing God's promise for all of eternity. I, too, find it easy to get caught up in the comforts that this world can provide. However, this is precisely what Jesus warns us about in today's Gospel.
In today's Gospel, the rich man in the parable does not consider sharing his abundance, but instead creates plans so that he can hold more and more for himself. As mentioned by our visiting priest, this rich man then blesses himself for his accomplishments and feels set for years to come--not realizing that he would die that very night. With his energy focused on the amassing wealth in this world without any care for others, he ultimately finds himself with nothing.
"Everything is vanity" is repeated in the first reading. To work in vain means to work without producing any real result. When a person looking in the mirror is called vain, that ultimately means that the appearance which they care so much about does not truly matter. I recently wrote about why I would not want to win the lottery, but I unfortunately did not list the vanity of it as one of the reasons.
I need to work on refocusing my energies away from the vanities of the world and more towards building the kingdom of God.
In today's Gospel, the rich man in the parable does not consider sharing his abundance, but instead creates plans so that he can hold more and more for himself. As mentioned by our visiting priest, this rich man then blesses himself for his accomplishments and feels set for years to come--not realizing that he would die that very night. With his energy focused on the amassing wealth in this world without any care for others, he ultimately finds himself with nothing.
"Everything is vanity" is repeated in the first reading. To work in vain means to work without producing any real result. When a person looking in the mirror is called vain, that ultimately means that the appearance which they care so much about does not truly matter. I recently wrote about why I would not want to win the lottery, but I unfortunately did not list the vanity of it as one of the reasons.
I need to work on refocusing my energies away from the vanities of the world and more towards building the kingdom of God.
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