“What Do You Seek?” - 07.31.22 (18th Sunday OT- C)
“What Do You Seek?”
By: Fr. David Schmidt
Regina Coeli Parish - Sacred Heart Church - Emsworth, PA
Mass Readings- https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/073122.cfm
Vanity of vanities. All things are vanity! When we hear this first reading today it’s easy to think to ourselves, “If everything is vanity. Then what is the point of it all? We work our butts off for all these years, to provide for ourselves and our families, and to make a name for ourselves, and then we die. What is the point?” Asking this question to ourselves can either lead us to despair or it can lead us to a profound truth about this life.
I think of the man from today’s Gospel who unfortunately is like many people in our world today. They seemingly achieve the American dream and accumulate all this wealth and possessions, so much so, that in order to store all their possessions they have to build more store houses. They reach the point that many people desire to reach where they can say to themselves, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” But then without warning, their lives are taken from them, and all their wealth that they accumulated was for nothing.
Does this mean that it is bad to pursue a good career that pays well and enables you and your family to have wealth and possessions? No. This is because the goods of this world are not evil in themselves. They only become an evil when we become attached to them and pursue them for their own sake. There are many people who live good Christian lives, and they happen to have a well-paying career and many possessions, but they do not pursue wealth and possessions and other earthly goods for their own sake. They remain detached from the earthly goods they have received and keep their hearts attached to Christ.
When examining our conscience a good question to ask ourselves is- “What do you seek?” Do you seek the things of this world, or do you do what St. Paul tells us in the 2nd reading and that is to ‘seek what is above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God?’ When we seek Christ and pursue Him with our whole heart then our lives are filled with meaning. We are not dependent on the goods of the world to make us happy, and we find fulfillment in life whether we are materially rich or materially poor.
What’s interesting is that God actually desires for us to be rich. Filthy rich. He doesn’t want us to be poor, but to accumulate many riches and treasures. However, it is not the riches and treasures of the world, but the type of riches that we hear at the end of Gospel which is to be “rich in what matters to God.”
What does God want you to be rich in? Love, peace, joy, virtue, selflessness, suffering, sacrifice, obedience, holiness. He wants us to be rich in our relationship with Him. To seek Him who is above and to fall in love with Him.
When we fail to seek what is above, we place all our value and meaning solely on this life. We then expect the goods of this world to fulfill those deep longings and desires of our hearts for happiness. We think once I get that promotion then I’ll be happy. Once I make a ton of money and buy that nice house and nice car then I’ll be happy. We run this rat race of life and we get to the finish line having done everything that the world said we needed to do to be happy in life and we feel nothing but disappointment and emptiness. We reach the finish line realizing that we spent our lives in an empty pursuit that led to nowhere, and we can’t help but say to ourselves, “what was the point?”
A great reflection to bring into prayer is to think about yourself on your death bed. As you pray with that moment, think about what you are going to care about the most as you approach your impending death. My guess is what you are going to care about the most is being surrounded by those that you love. In that moment, your job won’t matter, your material possessions won’t matter, nothing else, but your relationship with God and the loving relationships that you built with the people in your life. If you live your life seeking what is above and not the things of this world, then when you get to the end of your life, you’ll realize that this is not the end, but a new beginning. A new beginning that gives meaning to everything that happened during your time on earth.
So Qoheleth is correct in saying, “Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” Everything in this life is vanity and will eventually pass away. The only thing that will remain is the love of God. If we spend our lives seeking what is above and becoming rich in God’s love then when we reach the moment of our death, we will not be left empty handed before God, but instead we will have our hands full with the heavenly treasures of God’s love that we can offer back to Him in thanksgiving for our life. Then God will lead us through the gates of heaven into Paradise where He will give us even more heavenly treasures as we share in the infinite riches of God for all eternity.
