Discovering Ecclesiastes–“Don’t Worry–Be Happy”

The past week or so, my head has been wrapped with an ever tightening rubber band, like one of those that make the propeller spin on a toy airplane. I was thoroughly ticked off at the American Atheists who had received permission to erect a monument on court house property in Bradford County, FL. Oh yeah–it was placed next to a monument honoring the Ten Commandments. How ridiculous. I blogged about that one (It Makes Sense to Me) which vented some of my frustration. T

hen there was the ongoing quest for revenge  to obtain “justice” for Trayvon. And here I thought the guy accused of murdering him had been fully exonerated.  There was  Nancy Pelosi, that upstanding Catholic House Minority Leader  proclaiming that she could  not say if Jesus deserved a ‘right to life’ while in-vitro. In my own world my wife’s cancer (lymphoma) is back for the 4th time, and I wonder how much chemo a body can stand. She finally has a full head of hair again, and, just like that, again  it will all fall out. Then somehow I tripped over a piece of broken concrete while walking and busted up my knee and cracked two ribs. Whatever. I could go on and on with things but I am sure you get the point.

So what happens? Mass this Sunday the first reading is from Ecclesiastes. Look folks, I am a cradle Catholic, and my knowledge of the bible is ultra-minimal. I only started to explore this book about five years ago, and then with cursory glances at this and that. Then I discovered the Book of Sirach, which deals with individuals and families and communities and even tells you how to set your table for dinner. Proverbs is great, and Genesis is where I discovered that Abraham is not only the father of the Hebrew race he is also the Father of the Arabs. My God, Ishmael was his first born, and when Isaac came along Abe kicked Ishmael and his mom, Hagar, out and sent them into the desert. The Arabs and Hebrews have hated each other ever since. But today along came Ecclesiastes. “Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities. All things are vanity!

I had no clue what that meant, and the rest of the reading confused me even more. When I got home I delved deeper and now I am pounding this out on the keyboard  hoping to God that I end up making sense. (Trust me, many times I make no sense to myself until I untie the many tangled knots inside my head). The Book of  Ecclesiastes deals with the purpose and value of life. It is all of nine pages long. It suggests that vanity is in all things and ultimately life is an enigma beyond human ability to solve. Wow–pretty profound. I had never thought of that. You see–we NEED God. We must THANK God. God had given us all.

“What profit the man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun? One generation passes and another comes but the world forever stays. The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place that it rises.—-Nothing is new under the sun—it has already existed in the ages that preceded us.

Here is what I got out of thi,s and I am sharing here because you guys are the only Catholic group I ever interact with, albeit minimally. It seems to me that the Book of Ecclesiastes teaches us that no matter what, God has the final say in all things. We should not sweat the small stuff. We should not sweat any stuff.  Remember the old cliche, “Dont’ worry, be Happy”?  It is true. So I apologized to God for being such an idiot and losing sight of what I knew all along. HE”S got the whole world in HIS hands–the whole wide world.  It is a beautiful thing.