Remember

People forget. That is at the root of many problems today.

People forget history, people forget eternal truths, and they fall into error and trouble.

The current financial crisis in the United States and other countries is, in part, an example of this: some people forgot the cyclical nature of real estate and other economics; some forgot the eternal truths of right and wrong.

The classic words that begin the book of Ecclesiastes (1:2-11) in today’s first reading remind of this and other things.

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.

May we remember history and also, most importantly, may we always remember the eternal truths of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.