25th Week, Saturday, Sept 24
Ecclesiastes 11:9 - 12:8 / Luke 9:43-45
Ecclesiastes talks about death; God is going to judge you.
Dr. Wilder Penfield, director of Montreal's Neurological
Institute, made an amazing discovery.
One day while performing an operation with local anesthesia,
he accidentally touched the patient's brain. Instantly and vividly, the patient
recalled an exciting experience from childhood. A similar touch to another
person caused the patient to relive in perfect detail the experience of having
her baby.
Penfield and other scientists now believe that every action
of our lives even the feelings we had during the action is stored in our brain.
In other words, there is a physiological basis for the theological concept of a
personal judgment after death.
***
How much does the idea of a final, personal judgment
influence our daily actions? "Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes
place every day." Albert Camus
***
The author of the Book of the Preacher is in many ways a
modern man. He is a believer, he looks for meaning in life, he seeks happiness,
not wildly but in relation to the God of the covenant, and yet life disappoints
him constantly. He asks questions: how come? He has no full answer because he
lacks the perspective of life beyond death. How to reconcile life and happiness
with faith, lack of fulfilment in life with death, which seems to end all?
“They did not understand it at all,” says the gospel about
the disciples, when Jesus told them about his coming passion. Jesus speaks of
himself as the “Son of Man,” the mysterious person of heavenly origin predicted
by Daniel. “He must be delivered up,” for he is also the Suffering Servant of
the songs of Second Isaiah. Indeed, all this, about one who comes from God, is
a servant, and has to suffer and die, is hard to reconcile and accept, at least
from the human viewpoint. And to be told to follow his example is difficult to
take too.
***
Generally speaking, as one gets older, one would also get
wiser. Having crossed many bridges in life and eaten as much salt as rice, the
older one gets, the more experience one would have garnered. From those
experiences of life, one would attain some depth of wisdom. So how the 1st
reading would be understood depends on whether the reader or the listener is a
young person or one who has the seniority of years. Nonetheless the wisdom and
the realities expressed in the 1st reading need to be constantly revisited in
order to grasp it fully.
In the gospel, Jesus told His disciples to keep these words
constantly in their minds: The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the
powers of men. But they did not understand it there and then. But later they
would. And later they would also realise that what their Master went through,
they too would have to go through. Indeed the wisdom and experience of life
tells us this - If there is no suffering to hollow out our hearts, there would
be no room for joy.
Whether for the young or for those well on in years, that is
the reality. Choosing or hoping otherwise would be vanity of vanities.
***
Opening Prayer
Lord our God, it remains to us on occasion a cause for
wonderment that your own Son had to suffer and die. But of this we are sure: that
you knew what was best, that you loved him very much, and that he died to bring
us your life and love. Accept our thanks, Father, and help us to keep always in
mind how dear we are to you in Christ Jesus our Lord.
