The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
Have you ever heard of a couple who spent tens of thousands of dollars on a wedding, only to be divorced soon afterwards? How about someone buying the car of their dreams, only to have it flipped upside down and totaled due to a freak accident? Have you read the various tragic stories of lottery jackpot winners who win millions of dollars, only to end up broke, homeless, depressed, or even dead after not knowing how to use the money? Have you ever gotten revenge on an individual, only to punch them back and you feel that it was not enough or even not worth your time and energy?
Vanity.
All is vanity, especially when it does not lead to a life of peace and tranquility. Our hearts seek the fullness of the Kingdom of God, and God's will in the gift of our salvation.
The book of Ecclesiastes recalls that the work of man to gain and worry and devote so much attention to the things that just come and go is vanity. We place our value and efforts on the futile, when the futile is not the peace and end we desire: to have a long life, money, or intelligence. All of these may come and go, and yet are not fully illustrative of what is important.
What does it mean to be rich in what matters to God? The Lord is calling us to respond to His love, to respond to the gift of His grace because it is what our hearts seek. The eternal revenue is the only satisfying gift. St. Paul in his letters to the Colossians reaffirms this, illustrating that our only focus must be upon God- a task that makes us strong in the face of personal conflict, doubts, unending battles, and questions of the future. We are instruments of God’s grace, called to do His work and to be His vessels now, that we may enjoy peace forever.
Many people like to talk about what we deserve. You deserve this car. You deserve a break. You deserve to have this or that. Dare I question: Is any of that really sufficient for us? Truly, the only thing we really deserve is to do the will of God: a will that makes us whole.
Fr. Houston Okonma is a first generation Nigerian American, the oldest of four. The Lord called him to be a priest at an early age, a call he felt incapable of doing, and never really wanted, because according to his father, "that is not our plan, man." Instead of being a medical doctor, he is proud to be a doctor for the soul, that the Lord may use him as an instrument of His grace. He is a priest of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.