Mission Monthly Newsletter April 2001

...Meditate on These Things. Phillipians 4.8

"Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!"

Ecclesiastes 1:2

     How many times have we heard this saying?  I have heard it enough to know that I lack sensitivity when trying to understand its depth of meaning and wisdom.  Like unknowingly placing our hands into a sink of scalding dishwater or jumping into a cold mountain lake we eventually acclimate to extremes.  Acclimating to the spirit of vanity, however, similar to the bodily damage that can be caused by prolonged exposure to extreme conditions, in the words of St. Maximos the Confessor, “[will] tie the soul to material things and drag it down to earth, pressing on it like a massive stone.”

     So often the English language reduces words to the narrowest of meaning.  Vanity has become synonymous with one’s obsession with his own physical appearance.  This certainly is part of vanity’s meaning, but that definition might be more accurately applied to narcissism.  This reduction superficially overlooks vanity’s more subtle and insidious meaning, “self-love in the lust for power.”  It is not a desire to be the most beautiful, wealthy, or influential, rather it is a passion to use all means possible (including beauty, wealth and influence) to be in control (or at least a perceived control) not necessarily of THE universe but certainly of MY OWN universe.  Vanity is the spirit of idolatry, infidelity, fear, oppression, exaltation of the self, self-determination, the seeking of pleasure, a disregard for Truth and the lack of respect for life and the lives of others.  Is it any wonder why the great St. Ephraim the Syrian teaches us to pray that God not allow us to be subject to the spirit of “lust of power?”

     St. Maximos further tells us that “Vanity is the replacing of a purpose which accords with God by another purpose which is contrary to the divine.  For a man full of vanity pursues virtue not for God’s glory but for his own, and so purchases with his labors the worthless praise of men.”  St. Maximos’ use of the word “worthless” captures much of our struggle with this tenacious passion which robs us of time and the ability to see and desire only that which “accords with God.”  It can dwell in the subtle recesses of one’s heart persistently disabling the inner man’s theological and moral judgment or it can openly lead a man to trample his neighbor and his own life in the destructive pursuits of self-interest.  The true sadness of this passion, like all the passions, is how it weighs a man down and binds him to worldly matters and affairs.  In his Divine Liturgy St. Basil the Great offers this beautiful intercession on our behalf, “Be mindful, O Lord, of those who bear fruit and do good works in thy holy churches and who remember the poor... give them things heavenly for things earthly, things eternal for things temporal, things incorruptible for things corruptible.”  It takes much effort not to cling to the “corruptible, temporal, earthly things” of this life!

     With visible breath in the frosty night air of springtime the thunderous knock and victorious proclamation, “Lift up your heads O ye gates!  And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in!”, resonates in the silent, candle lit darkness.  It is the announcement of the resurrection of Christ!  “Who is this King of Glory?” recoils hell’s doorkeeper, sensing the destruction to come.  He is the risen Christ whose Pascha we now proclaim, moments before seen only from a distance in the shadowy anticipations and preparations of Great and Holy Lent.  Now His brilliance consumes the shadows of sin and death.  Now the Uncreated Light of our Salvation compels us to see things as they truly are and not as our vain imaginings cleverly deceive.  O Vanity, be blind to the children of God that we may see clearly the glory of the Holy, Risen Word.  “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecc. 11:13).

CHRIST IS RISEN!  TRULY HE IS RISEN!