Vanity of vanities
The writer of Ecclesiastes has been accused of having a morbid, pessimistic attitude towards life. This is based on the very opening verse of the book: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”, and its elaboration. He sees life as an endless circle of events. What has happened will happen again. There is nothing new under the sun.
Yet precisely because he portrays dissatisfaction in the seemingly endless repetitions of things “under the sun”, he invites to look beyond life “under the sun”. His attitude to life is a warning to anyone who lives totally engrossed in the values of this world. Anyone who lives for this world alone will one day find disillusionment. The dissatisfaction with the futility of earthly values serves as a spur for mankind to look beyond. For such a person, Jesus’ teaching of the Beatitudes is a welcome relief, inviting to an attitude of inner detachment from earthly values and embracing of the kingdom of God.
The story of king Herod in today’s gospel is a demonstration of the vanity of earthly values. He had taken his brother’s wife, seeking happiness. He had killed John the Baptist who pricked his conscience and stood as a constant annoyance to his unlawful wife. Now when he hears of the fame of Jesus, his fears multiply, thinking that John the Baptist has come back to life, to haunt him anew.
In the face of the futility of earthly values, God gives brings meaning. As we hear from the Responsorial Psalm, God has been our refuge from one generation to the next. We therefore pray with the Psalmist, that God may teach us the shortness of our life, that we may gain wisdom of heart.
