Reflection for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Maturity, Self Discovery and Purpose

In today’s first reading from Ecclesiastes we heard, “For what profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun?  All his days sorrow and grief are his occupation; even at night his mind is not at rest.  This also is vanity.”  These words at first seem quite negative and one could look at life as a monotonous drudgery of events which are filled with pain and sorrow.  However, the author, whom old rabbinic tradition believes was King Solomon, was only trying to describe stages of life, the things we go through.  Indulge me for a moment as I offer a reflection on the latest Star Trek film, “Beyond,” in particular the character of James T. Kirk.

In the reboot of the films we see all the old characters, Spock, Bones, Scotty, and Kirk.  In this last film, “Beyond,” they did a real nice job of developing Kirk’s character.  Spoiler alert, stop here if you are going to see the film, though I won’t be giving away any major plot lines.  It has been three years since Kirk has taken command of the Enterprise as her captain.  When he first became captain and they were beginning their six year mission he had great excitement in his heart, he could not wait to get out there and explore, to find new life and civilizations and to boldly go where no man had gone before.  However, as the days and weeks went by he began to feel the weight of everyday boring tasks, issues with crew, the ship, and the responsibilities of a being a captain.  You could see in his eyes that it was not what he signed up for.  Yet, that was not his only issue.  He was also trying to fill very big shoes, that of his father, George Kirk who saved many of the lives on his own ship and then sacrificed himself by going down in his ship to save others.  His father became a legend and a hero.  He had also replaced another revered former captain of the Enterprise, Captain Christopher Pike, who was one of Star Fleets finest officers.

Captain Kirk was not only dealing with the everyday toil, as Ecclesiastes points out, but he added to his own worry by putting himself in the shadow of his father and even that of Pike, and he wondered if he could ever become his own captain. 

In reality James T. Kirk did become his own captain, he just couldn’t see it.  He had already saved his own crew twice and one time saved the earth, but because of his own self conceived expectations and living in the shadow of others it would take a grand moment of self realization to see his own worth and the beauty of being a captain.  As the film progresses he begins to realize that he is his own man, his own captain, with gifts and talents and purpose that were given to him and he begins to mature and learn about himself and his role as a captain.  At the end of the film he is offered a vice-admiral job, which he turns down because it’s a desk job, his simple response in all Kirk style was, “what’s the fun in that,” he began to see himself for who he really was.

I think our friend King Solomon was not much different than our fictional friend, Captain James T. Kirk.  I guess there are a lot of responsibilities that come with being a captain of a ship, but imagine the responsibilities of being a king, the everyday work and toil, the constant worry of keeping your people safe, financial issues, food issues, and on and on.  I am sure Solomon had grown weary from time to time.  I am also sure like Kirk he too had to grow out of his father’s shadow.  King David probably the most revered king in human history, how would you like to follow that!  And yet, it was not David who built the Temple but Solomon and just like his father he too ruled for an entire generation with God bestowing on him incredible wisdom.  I am sure that Solomon began to realize his own purpose as he too matured, but during that maturation process he felt as he said, “all things are vanity.”  

He spoke a truth we all feel from time to time, we say it in such ways as, “what’s it all for, or “is it all worth it?”  All of us have been Kirk, all of us have been Solomon, and how may you ask, simply because we all share the same human nature.  No matter what, we too must mature and work through the sometimes minutiae of life realizing that in doing so we are building up our own characters, we are finding ourselves, and sometimes even getting out from under the shadow of others.  You may have had that big brother or sister in your family who could do no wrong, the Mary's of the world and you may have been the Martha of the world, the one who is anxious and worries and is told, your sister chose the better part.  You may be in a job where it seems like the same thing over and over again, you wake up, you go to work, you come home you work more and then go to sleep.  The every day grind which may seem like a bad thing while we may feel it from to time time is actually a good thing as the Lord is preparing us, molding us, shaping us to be better at whatever it is we do.

God has a purpose and wonderful plan for each and every one of us.  So yes, at times it will seem like vanity, but when we grow and come to realize God’s work in us and others, like Solomon we will be able to rest after we build the temple God desires us to build, whatever that temple may be or like Captain Kirk realize, this is where I am supposed to be, I am the captain of the Star-ship Enterprise, and boy that is a lot of fun!