Saturday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Brother Hugo's Bird House

Rejoice, O young man, while you are young and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth.

As he comes to the end of his book Qoheleth complains of the burdens of old age and urges the “young man” to enjoy the privilege of youth while it lasts. I think there may be at least the shadow of a smile on his face as he mourns the loss of eyesight, hearing, teeth, and the satisfactions of a good laxative (the caper berry.)

His advice to the young is surely timeless wisdom, and the kind of advice an old man of any age, nation or religion might give. So why is it in our Bible? And why should we hear it today?

I am struck by his religious assumptions, especially his references to the God who judges and The Creator.

Modern philosophy does not accept these assumptions. A radical philosophy of individualism, such as that of Ayn Rand, declares there is no judge. The existentialist Sartre famously declared, “If there is a god, there shouldn’t be!” They and their ilk believe the human being is the supreme being; there is no one to judge us, and no one to save us – even from ourselves.

They dispute our creation. We’re here, that’s certain, but why we are here is not. We can only speculate as to how we came about, but there was certainly no God who did it. Or none they can detect. Ultimately, each person must create her and his own reason for being. Salvation, if there is any such thing, belongs to those (few) who successfully answer that question.

Despite all his philosophical grumbling, Qoheleth did not doubt the existence of a creator/judge who would validate his existence. If he raised imponderable questions, he still hoped and believed they are somehow answerable.

Faced with the same questions many centuries later, believers in the Jewish/Christian tradition accept the existence of God -- some with Qoheleth’s resignation; others with joyous gratitude.