From vanity to sanctity... through sanity

WORD 2day: Thursday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 24, 2026: Ecclesiasticus 1:2-11; Luke 9: 7-9

TINNUTS... have you heard that sigh from anyone? And what does it actually mean? Too simple to be intrigued, the expansion of it goes this way: There Is Nothing New Under The Sun - TINNUTS. The first reading today speaks of vanities in life. Labour, dreams, experiences, senses... everything is a vanity if they are not in the right perspective... because there is nothing new under the sun and you are going to do nothing new after all your striving and struggling!

Continuing in the same line, the Gospel presents to us a personification of vanities, Herod! Herod had every opportunity to realise the vanity with which he was living, but he made no use of those. He even put an end to them. That would surely affect him all his life. That is why the Gospel says, "he kept saying, I beheaded John." How many such personifications we find in today's context - you turn your television sets on... there is a parade of these personifications of vanity, from all around the globe! The present war crisis in the world, has done its best in putting in a pin through many bloated balloons of vanity... but no lessons seem to have been learnt by humanity at large.

Now, stop! Before judging these war-mongering megalomaniacs in such terms, let us have a good look at ourselves and at our immediate surrounding! In our families where relationships should govern, why does selfishness take over... between spouses, between parents and children, between siblings! In work places and social forums, formalities reign supreme and vanities and self glories are idolised! How genuine are we... and how sane and simple we strive to be?

Are there vanities which surround me today? Aren't there opportunities offered me to realise them and to do away with them? From Vanity to Sanity... that is the primary journey we are challenged to make, so that we shall feel ready and prepared to embark upon the extraordinary journey towards sanctity! Yes, that is our itinerary: from vanity to sanctity, through sanity!