What the Book of Ecclesiastes has to Say About the Foolishness of our Times
We are reading through some wonderful “Wisdom Sayings” in the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours at this time. Several of the sayings speak to the relationship of suffering and wisdom. And in this way the foolishness of our age is disclosed which is so hyper-focused on avoiding suffering at all costs. Perhaps the link of suffering and wisdom is not the most pleasant of associations, but it is no less true for its difficulty. Lets consider a few of the sayings.
The tone was set in the psalm of the day which says,
Make us know the shortness of our life, that we may gain wisdom of heart. (Ps 89:3)
At every funeral, in the last portion of my sermon, I say to the faithful very plain terms, “You are going to die, and you don’t get to choose when.” I then ask them what are they doing to get ready to meet God.
For indeed, in our culture with all of our medicines and the fact that many of our elderly die in nursing homes away from our sight, we have tended to ignore, and hide the reality of death. And this creates the illusion that death is remote, that we can somehow stave it off indefinitely. Death to many people seems almost theoretical. And in our fallen state, of course we willingly entertain the illusion that death is remote.
And yet, in our almost unprecedented ability to maintain this illusion it is also evident how foolish our collective behavior has become. Many people live with almost no thought that they will one day die and appear before the judgment seat of Christ and have to render an account for what they do. Too many of us have wrongful priorities and spend most of our time in passing, uncertain unimportant things. And we spend little or no time on eternal and certain things like death, judgment, heaven and hell. Too many go on living in unrepentant mortal sin. All of this is foolishness on an almost colossal scale.
When I speak it funerals and say to people “You are going to die,” there is a visible reaction throughout the congregation. Some look anxiously amused, some look annoyed, and a few look knowingly and nod. But almost all are surprised, even shocked to hear something they almost never hear anymore.
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What the Book of Ecclesiastes has to Say About the Foolishness of our Times
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