With Opened Bible
"Where your heart is, there is your treasure"
“Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!”
Where can we find true joy? This Sunday's readings challenge us to reflect on our lives and what we truly seek. In the first reading, the author of this book of practical wisdom turns us to what is essential and what is not. "Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, "vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!" (Ecclesiastes 1:2). First of all, what does the word Qoheleth mean? This Hebrew word means "one who speaks in the assembly," one who teaches and educates. King Solomon, a man of great wisdom but also a great orator, places us before the essental, which is God, the source of wisdom and peace. By considering all things as vanity, the Wise King challenges us. He encourages us to reevaluate our choices and goals. Only God can make us happy and perfect.
The Gospel echoes this reading from Ecclesiastes in that Jesus, the True and Eternal Wisdom, teaches us to resort to the goods that endure forever. The rich man is poor because of his ignorance of life. The materially poor are rich if they understand and accept the things of earthly life in simplicity. "Where your heart is, there is your treasure" (cf. Mathew 6:21). If Jesus, the greatest good offered to us by God, is with us and within us, everything becomes eternal wealth.
Thus, he encourages us to seek true wealth: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. (Cf. Mathew 6:19-20) Saint Paul would also make this great invitaton to the faithful when he declared: "[But] whatever gains I had; these I have come to consider a loss* because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (Philippians 3:7-8) The riches of this world without Christ are only vanity among other vanites. The fulfllment that comes from knowing Christ as the supreme good should inspire us to seek spiritual wealth over worldly riches.
