The word “vanity” has come to mean “excessive belief in your own abilities or your attractiveness to others.” But the original meaning of the word, the one that makes sense of the First Reading, was “empty or valueless.” “In vain” comes closer to the meaning.

So when Qoheleth, the presumed author of this Reading says, “vanity of vanities! All things are vanity," he means that everything we do is in vain. This is like a statement of despair. Likely he would be diagnosed today with depression.

Maybe you or I, at the bottom of our hearts, would be tempted to this dark vision also, especially with so many things going wrong today. Is the answer found when the beer commercials tell us “it doesn’t get any better than this,” illustrating people as they drink too much, with laughing, perfect smiles? We have to wonder if maybe there is something more to live for than this.

So let us ask whether the First Reading is correct, that our lives are truly “in vain.”

The reading gives a dark answer.

What profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun? All his days sorrow and grief are their occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest.

Do we recognize this state?

Is our life devoted to riches or looking good? No? Then are we dedicated to “the bottom line,” to fighting for “enough” (so we will have something to live for)? Qoheleth says we seek these things in vain. Maybe we should listen to him. Maybe we should stop ignoring the poor, for instance.

Look at the Gospel. There Jesus says succinctly that our life should not consist of possessions, even though we may have plenty. He tells the famous parable about a very rich man who produces a huge harvest and is busy tearing down his barns to build still larger ones in order to hoard more. Read it.

Then ask, is that a reasonable way to live?

Must be, because we can find it all through Americanized cultures, constructing ever flashier buildings in our cities even while drugs and poverty beset our very lives. Don’t we say that values are unnecessary? Do we use other people to get what we want? Just like the man in Jesus’ story. Just like what Qoheleth calls “vanity.”

Well, this particular rich man got a nasty surprise when he went about eating, drinking and being merry (Gospel). God said to him,

  “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves.

Could this be said to you or me? “You fool!”

Whether we are rich or poor, are we trying to hoard what we have? Are we being children of God or children of mammon?

Truth is, human beings are fashioned in such a way that we are able to open up to the source and summit of all love, God. This might be the one thing that makes life worth living! If we cannot see over the piles of possessions we have (or wish we had), aren’t our honors and gains in vain?

If death were on its way to us this very night, what would God say to us?