Home ⇰ The Current ⇰ Church Talks ⇰ Nothing New Under the Sun
September 24, 2020 | Fr. Michael Brunner O.S.B.
Nothing is new under the sun. This is one of my favorite parts of my favorite Book in the Bible. It puts things into perspective. Another good perspective is provided by one of my favorite websites, the National Hurricane Center. I checked last night and right now there are no hurricanes, tropical storms or depressions in the Atlantic Ocean. That’s maybe the calm before the storm. The peak of the hurricane season is October, and we’ve run out of names already. Somehow, they do seem very personal. We don’t name them “Tree Smasher”, “Father of Winds” or “Water Terror”; we give them nice human names: Wilma, Sandy, Irma, Harvey – gentle names. Their effect on us is quite personal but not gentle at all.A Reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes (1:2-11)
Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun? One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays. The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises. Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds. All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going. All speech is labored; there is nothing one can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear satisfied with hearing. What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us. There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them.
The Word of the Lord