Fr. Gerard Lecomte, CJM
Here in the lazy, hazy days of summer, it is tempting to sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of our labor. With summer’s heat upon us, who can blame us for congratulating ourselves for the work we have done and taking a well-deserved break? But the way the world defines success is not the way God would. What, in the end, matters to God? Gathering today in the Lord’s name, let us reflect on what really matters in this world.
Since this is Ecclesiastes’ only appearance in the Lectionary for Sundays and Holy Days, we must make the most of its “cameo” appearance! Ecclesiastes is one of the most atypical books of the Old Testament, seemingly contrary to mainstream biblical teaching. A person named Solomon engages in philosophical musings about the meaning of life that leads him to the brink of despondency. Despite the darkness of the book, however, believers through the ages have found solace in its pages, and spiritual writers continue to recommend meditation on it as an aid to detachment from the temporal world.