Main news for 25 August 2025

When reading Ecclesiastes, the great teachings of the East involuntarily come to mind. "All is vanity" sounds very Buddhist. But reality is what it is, and at that point it no longer matters who managed to notice something characteristic and typical of it. A world in which God's presence is not visible is indeed nothing more than vanity. And Ecclesiastes sees the world exactly this way. No, of course Ecclesiastes is not an atheist. He is not even an agnostic. But this is not about theory, or even about a worldview.

It is about the sense of God's presence. A sense that is always very concrete. It can make the world eternally new, because the world truly exists only as an active manifestation of God's will. As the embodiment of that will. As the dynamic movement of a reality that is constantly being renewed. Outside this dynamic, however, the world is not eternally new but eternally old. And we, accustomed to a world from which God is not visible, usually see exactly that kind of eternity. So Ecclesiastes looked at the world through our eyes. And he saw that there is nothing new under the sun. But if that is so, then everything is indeed vanity. "Vanity of vanities" - that is, the same vanity, but in all its fullness. Or, more precisely, in what in this case takes the place of fullness.

For vanity is movement around emptiness. And what, then, should be considered fullness? Perhaps an infinitely rapid and never-ceasing movement around emptiness. Studying it is truly exhausting work. But "the sons of men" practice it with all diligence, for in their fallen state nothing else remains for them. At least until the Meeting takes place. But one still has to come to it. And Ecclesiastes begins his path.

A path which, as he warns in advance, will lead to sad conclusions. But it must still be traveled so that life may receive at least some meaning. Even if it is a negative meaning. For a negative meaning is still meaning. But meaninglessness is only emptiness. "Vanity of vanities." Therefore consent to the meaninglessness of life is spiritually equivalent to suicide. Ecclesiastes does not want suicide. He is ready to seek meaning.