Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Sometimes I feel like a hamster in a hamster wheel going around and around and not really getting anywhere. Some days and weeks feel like the same chores, the same work being done just to have to do them all again: meals to be made, dishes to be done, school lunches to be packed, laundry to be washed, homework to be supervised, lessons to be driven to; grocery shopping, cleaning, paying bills, scheduling appointments, running errands, ‘round and ‘round and ‘round life goes.
The author of Ecclesiastes expresses a similar sort of feeling, but with an extreme sense of futility and emptiness, “vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1: 2b-3) “One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays.” (1: 4) and “Nothing is new under the sun.” (1:9b) It seems like the author is saying, “what’s the point of it all? It’s all the same, and nothing ever really changes.” Ancient Israelites did not believe in an afterlife as we do today. The concept of life after death developed late in the Jewish religion, probably in the last two centuries before Jesus. So, if their life was all toil and labor and suffering, they didn’t even have an eternal reward to look forward to.
Looking to the gospel reading (Luke 9: 7-9), we have a short passage about Herod wondering about Jesus and who he is. Interestingly, in light of the first reading of “nothing new” being under the sun, some people were saying that Jesus was John the Baptist or Elijah or some other Ancient Prophet come back to life. They weren’t expecting someone completely new. They thought they had seen it all before. Herod, however, threatened by this new person getting so much attention, persisted in trying to find out who Jesus was, “And he kept trying to see him.” (vs. 9) Of course we know, given the whole story, that Herod was not looking for Jesus in order to become a disciple, but out of curiosity and perhaps jealousy.
We can ask ourselves why we are interested in Jesus. Do we believe that he truly came with something new for humanity, for us? Do we believe that Jesus changed the course of the world by his birth, death and resurrection? Do we believe that Jesus really does offer “something new under the sun?” What are we seeking? What are we living for? What is the purpose of our daily toiling?
Lest we feel that all of our work is in vain, let us be reminded of the salvation Jesus brings and consider whether our lives reflect our beliefs. And let us find hope in the words from Isaiah, “I, the Lord, am doing something new which has already begun. Don’t you see it?” (Isaiah 43: 19)
-Eileen Miller