Vanity of Vanities (You Can't Take It With You) - Aug 3, 2025

We’ve been blessed with some beautiful weather this week, and I’ve been grateful for the opportunity to spend time outdoors with my kids. Whether it’s a hike in the woods or a visit to the beach – my boys like to collect things. By the end of the trip I inevitably have pockets full of shells or rocks or acorns.  But then, when we get back to the car, the reckoning begins – especially with the middle child who wants to bring them home.

‘No, we have enough rocks at home, we should leave these here.’

-But daddy, we need this rock. -Sorry, buddy. Then open the floodgates.

No amount of reasoning that these are just rocks, that we can live without them, will abate the tears.

Even more memorable are the wintertime hikes, when he wants to bring home a snowball or an icicle. ‘Buddy, we simply can’t take that with us,’ I’ll say.

Brothers and sisters – there’s a powerful analogy here for the spiritual life.

‘We can’t take it with us.’ We all grow attached to things in our journey of life – whether it be wealth, pleasure, power, or honor – things we cannot take with us.

Things we bemoan and fret over when they are taken from us. I will admit I’m quite guilty of this myself.

Within my own career, it's happened a couple of times that I've been passed over for a position – a position that I was sure I was a perfect fit for.  How much I clung to that idea of that position, and how upset I got when it was taken away. I lost track of the bigger picture.

Vanity of Vanities –our first reading says – all things are vanity. The Hebrew for vanity is ‘hebel’, which means vapor or breath – these things are like a breath or sigh – they come and go quickly like a breath. [sigh] All of these positions or things we grasp for – they will all pass away.

The reading is from the book of Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth – and the author identifies himself as Solomon.  Solomon was the wealthiest, most successful Jewish king who ever lived. By one account he had 100s of wives [see meme]. He had it all: wealth, power, pleasure, and honor. And yet, here he is at the end of his life, saying ‘vanity of vanities’ – all of these things will disappear when I die. And indeed, everything fell apart after his death – the kingdom of Israel was divided and never reached the same heights.

In the Gospel, Jesus narrates a parable that is similar to Solomon’s story.  A very wealthy man is preoccupied with growing his wealth, with expanding his barns – he wants to eat, drink, and be merry – he wants to sit on his laurels. But God says to him – you fool, tonight you will die… and you will lose everything.

Just as our Psalm says today: our lives are like changing grass that sprouts in the morning and wilts in the evening.

Our lives on this earth are short, like a breath, and the things of this world will pass away. This world cannot bring us ultimate happiness.

Wealth, pleasure, power, honor – the 4 goods of the world which Thomas Aquinas often mentions– we all strive after these things  … but they cannot fulfill our deepest desires; they cannot make us definitively and permanently happy. When we get some, we are not satisfied: we want more wealth, or more pleasure, or more power, or more honor.

This is how I’ve felt in my own life, with my academic medical career. I feel pushed or tempted to try to continue climbing the academic ladder, higher in higher. Of course, it cannot go to infinity; at some point I will be disappointed. And I have been.

Even our most successful superstars become disappointed. How many of the world’s top stars in sports or Hollywood are actually living happy lives? How often instead do their lives dead-end in addiction, depression, and break-up?

Vanity of vanities, all these things are vanity. It’s a bit depressing, but it’s absolutely true.

As Christians, we talk about the ‘Good News’ – that’s what Gospel means. But we should first acknowledge the ‘Bad News’ – the fact that this Earth, this life cannot fully satisfy us…

When we acknowledge this Bad News – that all earthly things are vanity—then we realize how wonderful the Good News truly is.

Yes, the things of this Earth cannot satisfy us – but God can, and His only Son opened the way to this sublime satisfaction: Paradise and eternal joy with God who is Love.

As St Paul says: after we die, three things remain: “faith, hope and love. [and] the greatest of these is love”.

Only the love of God can satisfy us.

As St Augustine said: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in [God].”

So the answer is to look to God, not to earthly things, for our ultimate happiness.

We should be indifferent or detached to the things of this world, and value them only insofar as they help us for our Highest Goal – Heaven. St Ignatius of Loyola, whose feast day we celebrated a few days ago, called this the ‘First Principle and Foundation.’ We should remain detached to the things of the world, and instead aim our eyes at Heaven.

Our second reading from Paul to the Colossians gets right to this point.

[Quote] ‘If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.

For you have died,

and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ your life appears,

then you too will appear with him in glory.”

When we strive after God, we may not become superstars or millionaires-- our life will be hidden with Christ in God. How many pious peasants are shining as stars forever in Heaven, long after the millionaire’s sports cars have rusted out? Jesus teaches: “For what profit is it to a man if he gain the whole world but lose his soul?”

I recall the wonderful scene from the movie A Man for All Seasons. For our young people – it’s an oldie but a goodie—it won 6 Oscars. Sir Thomas More is on trial, having sacrificed everything – his position, his wealth, his comforts – in order to hold true to his conscience and his Catholic faith. The young man who testifies against him, who lies to betray him, is an ex-pupil named Richard Rich.

Immediately after Richard’s perjury, Thomas notices the medal around Richard’s neck.

He says: “That is a fine chain of office you are wearing Richard… what does it mean?’

Another responds: ‘Master Rich has been made Attorney General for Wales’

"For Wales. Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales, Richard?”   …But for Wales?

For the English, Wales is the boonies; it has x3 more sheep than humans.

Brothers and sisters, how often do we abandon the things of God for something ultimately quite trivial?

How many marriages and families have fallen apart, because one or both spouses were hell-bent on their careers? How many people have stopped coming to Church because they’re just too busy with kids’ soccer games or work?  You can’t take it with you – whether it’s the little league trophy or the work promotion.

The only thing we can take with us are the acts of love, whether love of God or neighbor. Jesus says “whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones … will never lose his reward.”

Or to quote from St Francis of Assisi: “Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received – only what you have given”.

When we die, we will be judged on how we have loved, one what we have given.

Perhaps you’re thinking: ok deacon, I see what you’re saying, but what does this mean for my life? Can you give any practical suggestions?

I have 2.

First, a personal inventory. Before summer ends – maybe even this week – would be a great time to do a spiritual inventory. 

Spend some time to sit down and chart out how you are spending your valuable resources: your time and your money. 

Write the 24h of your typical day out: 7am wake up, 30min for work out, 30min for breakfast, etc… add up how much are you spending at work, at play, etc.  How much goes to God?  We should be praying every morning and every evening. God gives us the 24h of every day – every minute belongs to Him – the least we can do it make sure he gets 5-10 minutes here and there. Daily Mass is a wonderful offering to God – perhaps the best. Or the spiritual masters will tell you that you should be doing at least 20 minutes of spiritual reading or meditation daily – I’ll admit in my own life with little kids this has been really difficult.

But if I’m honest, if I’m doing a good inventory, then I should actually use my iPhone and look at my ‘Screen Time’ – it shows me how much time I waste every day on social media – wow. I did this yesterday- Vanity of vanities indeed, Deacon. Facebook and reels are vanity. I highly recommend looking up your Screen time.

Similarly, look at your budget. How much money are you spending on frivolous things, versus on charity or the things of God?  If you’re spending more on clothes or cosmetics than on charity, that is literally vanity of vanities. Remember, you can’t take it with you, unless you’ve given it away. 

Ok, so first suggestion: do an inventory.

Second, as part of your inventory, take some time to look at the bigger picture.

We can get so caught up with the daily grind of schoolwork or working to pay the bills, that we lose sight of the bigger picture of what is God calling me to do with my life.

If you have big decisions looming over your future, try to look at them as St Paul or St Ignatius instructs us – to keep our eye on Heaven, to be detached from the goods of the world - to make choices based on whether they will help us to become saints or not.

Where will you go to college? Where will you send your kids to school?  Perhaps the Catholic school could be the better choice, even though the tuition would require some sacrifice… Should you date this person or that, or should you instead explore the priesthood or religious life? Looking back on your deathbed, what would you have preferred to choose?

Will you take the new job, that would pull you away from your family or Church? Will you take the job that requires you to do things that are unethical, where you feel like you’re selling your soul a bit?

It profits a person nothing to give their soul for the whole world... but for Wales? For a bigger paycheck?

Recently, I ran into one of the top surgeons in our hospital, who is also a devout Catholic. I often see him stopping into the nearby church to pray. We recently chatted about how my wife and I are already feeling the peer pressure to enroll our kids into summer camps or piano lessons… as if we’ve already started the race to get the kids into an Ivy League school.

And this doctor responded: you know, none of that really matters. All that matters is Heaven. You just want your kids to be saints. That’s it.

And he’s living it – I see his own kids; he’s not pushing them to become bigshot doctors like him. They are going to daily Mass -- I see them. That is building treasure in heaven. As my dear mother likes to say: it doesn’t matter how many letters you get after your name – whether that’s M.D. or Ph.D. or J.D. All that matters is whether you have ‘St’ at the beginning of your name. We were all made to be saints.

All these other things – the PhD or the job or the prestige – are like pretty rocks or acorns or icicles that we collect while we’re hiking. We can’t take them with us.  We can only take what we’ve given in love. May we give generously. Amen.