1  ‘One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions’, said Jesus. What have you found by experience to be more important in life than possessions?  What brought this home to you?

2  ‘Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.’  Perhaps you have seen how greed can lead to trouble in public life, in family life and in the personal life of individuals.  What has helped you to guard against greed?  What benefits have you experienced when you were less greedy?

3  The message of the parable could be summed up in saying  ‘If you want to give God a laugh, tell him your plans.’  Life takes many twists and turns we do not anticipate.  When have you found that you have had to change your plans because of unexpected circumstances?  What has helped you to be flexible and resourceful at such times?

John Byrne OSA          Email john@orlagh.ie

Questions people ask

Q.  Where are the original manuscripts of the Gospels and letters of St Paul?

A.  There are no surviving original manuscripts of any part of the Bible, just as there are no original fragments of any of the famous Greek or Roman writers of that period such as Virgil or Cicero.  We depend on copies of all these writings and copies of copies.  Copyists were far from perfect and there are thousands of variations among the documents.  The oldest surviving fragments of New Testament texts date from about 150 AD.  The oldest complete New Testament dates from the fourth century.  Some of the oldest fragments, dating from 250 AD are lodged in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin.

Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap          Email silvesteroflynn@gmail.com

The Deep End:  Vanity of Vanities

Brain scans are revealing.  Take the ones done on teenagers listening to music. These show that insecurity and not personal preference dictates what songs they call ‘cool’.  In one study they listened to tracks and rated how much they liked them.  After a break, they listened to them again some having been shown a popularity rating based on how many times a track had been downloaded.  While 12 per cent of those who didn’t know whether others liked a track or not changed their ratings, 22 per cent of those who knew that a tune was a hit changed theirs. Of those, three quarters moved in tune with the song’s popularity rating.

Now for the interesting bit:  the first time they heard a track their reward and pleasure zones lit up;  but on listening again their anxiety and pain centres glowed.  This suggested that fear made them change their views.

Today’s first reading (Eccles 1:2, 2:21-23) is tailor-made for that sort of thing. ‘Vanity of vanities!’ it proclaims.  ‘All is vanity.’  Human toil it sees as an annoyance, and notes that even at night our minds don’t rest.  Worry persists.  We don’t like truth packaged in pessimism.  Yet, truth made one researcher remark that many people who think they’re individuals with free choice actually are slaves to what others think.

Those words on vanity from the third century BC, could just as easily be from today so accurately do they hit the spot.  If we have to be slaves to what another thinks, then let that other be the Other.

Fr Tom Cahill SVD, Divine Word Missionaries, Donamon, Co Roscommon
Email tomcee@eircom.net