A Deeper and Richer Life, with Lasting Joy and True Fulfillment

EXCERPT: Today’s first reading from Ecclesiastes sounds rather negative — not like very good news — but it points to the road to joy. Qoheleth recognizes that most of what we spend our lives chasing has little ultimate value. It’s a message that is echoed in today’s Gospel passage: “Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

Too often such a message is heard as negative, as a condemnation of our desires. A better way to understand such teaching is that it points us to a deeper and richer life, a more lasting joy, and true fulfillment.

The problem is that we so often live on the surface of life. Especially in our consumer-driven culture, we are brainwashed to think that buying and acquiring things will bring us happiness. So we often devote much of our time and energy in pursuit of things that do not last and do not satisfy. What Qoheleth and Jesus both want us to understand is that there is a deeper meaning to life and that our happiness depends on going deeper.

When we go beneath the surface, we often find that things look much different. Note Paul’s words to us today: “Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self.” Then he goes on to insist, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.” On the surface, people may look and sound very different, but if we go deeper, we see that all are human, all are loved by God, all are brothers and sisters. And if we go deep enough, we find Christ there, “in all.”

Those charged with preparing and leading worship can also fall into the trap of staying too much on the surface. There is a need to pay attention to the manifold details of the liturgy, but if we spend our time and energy only on getting the rituals right, we may be missing the richness that lies within and under those ritual words and actions. We need to constantly remind ourselves that the liturgy is a means to encounter the living God and make sure that all our activity does not keep us from that encounter. And we need to be constantly seeking ways to help the whole assembly move deeper into the meaning of what we do together at worship.

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SOURCE: NCR Online Celebration Archive