Eighteenth Sunday Ordinary Time Year C
Rev. Thomas Kuffel
Vanity is fleeting. It lacks substance, has no depth, and is superficial. From appearances, vanity allures. As the sirens chant their luring melodies, those who listen seek her seduction and fall prey to her charm. Yet, Proverbs tells us, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised” (Pro 31:30).
Wisdom, personified as a woman, “is more beautiful than the sun (Wis 7:29). “She is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness” (Wis 7:26). She penetrates the charm of vanity and exposes how vapid and insipient it is. Vanity is a sweet taste to the tongue, but burns within, destroying the beauty of Divine Wisdom: integrity, harmony, and clarity. Wisdom, true beauty, births the beautiful because she is beauty. Wisdom produces beauty within the soul. Her beauty is not fleeting, a superficial makeover covering up flaws. Rather, she dwells within transforming the soul with her integrity, clarity, and harmony making us beautiful within for she orders all things sweetly.
Personal beauty reveals Divine Wisdom dwelling within. Only those who have this inner wisdom have sense to see vanity for what it is: folly. Folly, transient flirtation, charms the soul into corruption. Wisdom, however, from her treasury brings forth good. To combat vanity, Qoheleth speaks:
“Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you” (Pro 4:23–25).
Wisdom warns and her glory protects for it penetrates the mysteries of life and understands, time is of the essence.
No greater insight into life exists than to penetrate time. It is most precious. Eighty years for those who are strong. Seventy for those who are not and much of this is toil and labor if not lived for the Lord. For those who live for the Lord, eternity awaits, for those who do not, living superficially, become like chaff, blown away in the wind. To instruct us in the ways of Wisdom, St. Paul reminds us:
“We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body” (2 Co 5:10).
Wisdom teaches us to number our days aright and gain knowledge of the mysteries laid at the foundation of creation. These mysteries reveal the emptiness of the seductions of the sirens. No longer do gold and silver, possessions and powers rule our lives. Rather, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and repentance rule (cf. Col 3:12-13). These virtues enhance, revealing the wealth Wisdom offers.
Wisdom, rightly ordering our lives, enriches. All that defiles is now purified and all anxiety now becomes trust. Yet to obtain this Wisdom, we pray. In prayer, understanding is given, and her spirit fills the soul because “I preferred her to scepters and thrones, and I accounted wealth as nothing in comparison with her” (Wis 7:7).
Vanity, however, incessantly inverts the trajectory of our lives. The earth and all its majesty tempt us to treasure creation over the Creator. We store up earthly treasures in earthen vessels; yet rust devours our precious trinkets. Moths eat our finery. “Thieves break in and steal” (Matt 6:19) leaving us riddled and befuddled. All that we have accomplished: status, position, popularity, and productivity, cause despair. At our death, we are lost, without memory.
Wisdom differs, as Qoheleth remarks, “God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living” (Wis 1:13). Wisdom, the attendant of God’s throne, penetrates the mind and gives insight that our work is our worship dedicated to God. Our work and worship honors God giving joy to the heart. This work transcends our lives expanding our horizons for it does not please one’s selfishness but gives back to God what God has generously given to us, life.
Isaiah’s insight: “You have accomplished all that we have done” (Is 26:12), removes the vapidity of our work. Work is not vain. It co-creates with God’s glory. God’s glory motivates us, and our work completes us making us whole.
Work for many seems to be toil because they work for selfish gain. They do not see work as God’s gift to do great things. In Wisdom, work becomes our vocation. We do not work for pay, but honor. Honor, a fruit of wisdom, instructs us to treasure what God treasures. Besides Himself, creation is his treasure. The crowning of creation is humanity. We are God’s treasure, and working wisely enriches us. Wisdom reveals this. We are not evolutionary experiments existing by chance. We are wonderfully and thoughtfully made filled with every grace and blessing becoming God’s beautiful treasure.
Beautiful, we flee immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness only to embrace Christ. He, Wisdom Incarnate, inspires integrity, clarity, and harmony by which we build heavenly castles, not barns. These treasures not only honor others but allows God to honor us. Found worthy, Wisdom gives insights into the divine mysteries. We think, move, and act as God for He dwells within, giving us his Spirit.
Treasuring Divine Wisdom is life’s secret. Proverbs tells us, “Receive my words and treasure up my commandments” (Pro 2:1). To understand God’s secrets, we give and in giving we gain understanding into God’s commandments. His commandments reveal the path to divine wealth, as Qoheleth counsels: “If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God” (Pro 2:1–5). Filled with divine wisdom, we have infinite wealth that neither time nor death destroy for it is more precious than all the silver and gold. It is Divine Life dwelling within, so we become eternal vessels filled with Wisdom’s wealth.