The thinker concludes that life is absurd and all is vanity, for it is in vain that one toils when death takes everything away (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23). Indeed it is in vain that one piles up wealth on earth, if one is not rich as well in what matters to God (Luke 12:13-21).

Vanity of vanities

Ecclesiastes is the Greek term for the Hebrew Qoheleth, someone who serves the assembly of the people, a teacher or preacher. This sage of the fourth or third century before Christ had carefully examined the world he lived in and was convinced that when everything is said and done, life is a basket of vanities.

“Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” Transient, worthless, empty—literally hot air, vapor—that’s how he summed up all of earthly reality. “Vanity of vanities” is a superlative form expressing utter or supreme degree of futility and emptiness.

This is exemplified by human work in particular. A person toils with anxiety in his/her heart, sorrow and grief perhaps on many of one’s days, restless mind even at night, and what profit comes to him/her for all this labor?

One might have even labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and to whom must he/she leave the property, someone who will enjoy it or squander it, someone who has not labored over it?

Ecclesiastes was haunted by death; it is the fate of all human beings. One comes forth from his mother’s womb naked and departs again as naked with nothing left in the hand (Ecclesiastes 5:14); the dust returns to the earth it came from (Ecclesiastes 11:10—12:7).

A cry for the absolute

Ecclesiastes was no killjoy, speaking in despondency to attract attention, or cultivating an aesthetic pessimism in order to provoke or shock. He simply could not be content with what is temporary. He was the type who asks, seeks and knocks at doors for what lasts, the Absolute. His words were an anguished cry appealing to all not to be deceived by mirages and illusions, by the things of this world that at the end could only be exposed to be vanity, just wind.

His burning hunger for the Absolute was on the certitude that God exists. His desire was like an immense void that could be filled only by God, who alone is not vanity. He was irresistibly drawn toward God, who alone could redeem him from the fundamental emptiness of human endeavors to produce what is everlasting. Ecclesiastes personifies the truth that all of life is futile and otiose if viewed and lived apart from God.

To be rich in God’s eyes

Like a peripatetic philosopher of old, Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, where He would fulfill His mission, imparted wisdom to His accompanying charges and taught them the cost and principles of discipleship and the imperatives of the reign of God.

Here He warned His disciples against all greed, the apparent reason behind the problem of two brothers at odds over their inheritance. “One’s life does not consist of possessions.” One must always think of the end, the final line that renders insignificant what man may have idolized.

By refusing to arbitrate between the two brothers, Jesus downplayed the importance of their quarrel and called for the alignment of His disciples’ attitudes toward possessions and the real concerns in life of those committed to God’s reign.

The parable of the unwise rich man poignantly illustrates that even great wealth are no guarantors of life. One is finally valued and evaluated not according to what one has or possesses, but according to what one is or has become. And this is best demonstrated by what one does with the possessions one has been blessed with.

Simply to eat, drink and be merry would mean a life impoverished by one’s riches. To see and use wealth, not only for oneself, but as responsibilities and opportunities to do good and help others, is to be truly wise and rich in the eyes of God.

Alálaong bagá, the followers of Jesus must go by a perspective different from that of the world when it comes to possessions in life. One must be always aware of the ultimate vanity and emptiness of material wealth. It is to freedom from things that we are called.

Since the material universe is paradoxically as transient as a wisp of air, warming or freezing as the case may be, it cannot be the be-all and end-all of human existence. Our sight is to be higher than temporal possessions and secular protests and fixed on eternal values.

To be myopic and without insight and foresight in this world of addicting possessions and powers is to deserve the sobriquet “fool,” one who denies or has forgotten God (Psalm 13:1). It is the height of folly to amass wealth and grab power for “la dolce vita” oblivious of the responsibility of life itself.

It is God who has loaned us life and it may be up for recall and accounting any moment.

For more of my reflections and works, visit my blogsite: http://alalaongbaga.multiply.com.

‘THE Philippines should emulate China by posting a 9.5-percent growth continuously for 25 years. Maybe then, it would become a First World country,” said an official from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at the presentation of the results of the 2005 Purchasing-Power Parity Preliminary Report.

There’s no better way to judge a man, the old saying goes, than by the caliber of his critics.

With the fall of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) over the last week, I have been frequently “e-mailed.”

‘No rain! No rain! No rain!” went the chant of the half-a-million crowd to stop the downpour from drenching them to the bones while they watched one music performer after another in the Woodstock music festival—billed as “Three Days of Music, Peace and Love”—at the height of summer in August 1969.

Is there a connection between the breach of the constitutional limit on the foreign ownership in the listed firm Philippine Racing Club Inc. (PRCI) with a forthcoming real-estate play in the 21-hectare prime lot in Sta. Ana Racetrack conservatively valued at P10 billion?

The Indian authorities may have finally become serious about mopping up unwarranted liquidity in the banking system.

Vanity of vanities

Ecclesiastes is the Greek term for the Hebrew Qoheleth, someone who serves the assembly of the people, a teacher or preacher. This sage of the fourth or third century before Christ had carefully examined the world he lived in and was convinced that when everything is said and done, life is a basket of vanities.