Vanity of Vanities

Aug. 3, 2025

The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite Old Testament Books. It contains some of the most beautiful poetry in the Bible. The writings are those of a very wise man named Qoheleth. It is called the Book of Ecclesiastes because it was used extensively by the early Church in its catechesis. (The Latin word for church is ecclesia).
   
In the passage that we read from this Sunday, Qoheleth calls out, “Vanities of vanities.” He is saying that everything that exists is ultimately nothing. He has had wealth, success, popularity and power, and it has radically failed to satisfy his soul. He is coming to the realization that without God, nothing has value.
   
He writes as one who has worked hard to gain what he has, but his possessions and wealth, at his death, will go to someone who has done nothing for them. So, what is the point of working hard and struggling? We all die and leave it all behind.

Qoheleth is hitting bottom. He has sought to fill his heart with things that cannot fill it. Some have said that we have a God-shaped hole in our hearts, and only God can fill it. But we all, to varying extents, try to fill it with possessions, pleasure, position, and power. The Four Big Ps. Because they fail, we seek over and over to find that satisfaction, that sense of fulfillment, by trying over and over. This is the beginning of every addiction, which is a desperate, frantic seeking to fill and numb the emptiness within.
   
Like Qoheleth, we must realize that only in God do we find the peace, the fulfillment, the happiness that we seek.
—Fr. Mike Comer