Today has a hard saying: "...vanity of vanities! All is vanity." (Eccl 1: 2) Does that land with me? How much of what my life is about things that are temporary? Jesus tells us: "For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?"(Mk 8: 36-37) How much of what today's culture is about saving myself? Can "values" save me? What can I do that will overcome the inevitability of judgment and death?: "For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." (2 Cor 5: 10) Today's readings are a "wake up call" to remind us that our live are not defined by those things, visible and tangible, that obsess wider society. No, rather we look to the reality created by Christ in his resurrection: "But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will be at home." (2 Pet 3: 13) When we gather for Mass we are not focused on the immediate and the tangible. We look to the world that is to come: "So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal." (2 Cor 4: 16-18)
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