This is Cardinal Francis George. I invite you to join me for the next two minutes to reflect

with Father Robert Barron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire. Word on Fire Catholic

Ministries is a non-profit ministry at the forefront of Catholic evangelization, using

new media to spread the faith and every continent. Father Barron challenges us to open our hearts

to the Word on Fire, which is God's Word of Love for each of us. If our hearts are open,

the Lord can change and transform us so that we might speak with love about the one who

is love. The global benefactors of Word on Fire with the support of the Archdiocese of

Chicago now present Word on Fire. Peace be with you. Friends, our first reading for this

weekend is taken from one of the strangest books in the Bible, the Book of Kohalif. It's

known in older Bibles as the Book of Ecclesiastes. Now, I say the book is strange because it has

almost nothing nice to say. It's not all what you'd expect from a biblical book. It's a very

dark, very pessimistic view on life. It's the work of an old man, so Kohalif. That's the

name that he goes by. It just means the churchman or the assemblyman. But he describes himself

as an old man who has seen it all, done it all, experienced it all. And he comes out with this

word of wisdom, vanity of vanities. All is vanity. The scholars tell us the Hebrew behind that is

something like air or bubble. It just means everything is is insubstantial. Kohalif has had wealth.

He's had power. He's had pleasure. He's had material goods. He's had knowledge. Mind you,

there's a tradition that says that Kohalif is Solomon himself. King Solomon, the end of his

life looking back at his long career. Well, think of someone like Solomon who was known for his

wisdom as well as his wealth and power and so on. So Kohalif had all this. And yet he concludes,

listen, there's nothing new under the sun. Sun comes up. Sun goes down again. All is vanity.

Some have rendered that phrase as a chase after wind. You know, even as in passing insubstantial,

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