MOST people believe making money fulfils their life. The more we make, the more fulfilled we will be. On the other hand, we are told by the Lord that the love of money is the root of all evil. I believe that the greatest of the two commandments — the love of God and the love of our neighbours — constitutes the meaning of life and the fulfilment of our desire for happiness.

I know of so many people who are rich or middle class who have lost their way in life as they struggle through the temptation of spending most of their lives and their talents on money-making and taking advantage of simple people and poor people who are not shrewd or austere.

Many of our people have false values and spend what we have on false goods such as fashionable clothes, excessive food, travel, hotel, way of life, cars, and jewellery. But none of these can bring happiness — only temporary pleasure.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever.

The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.

The wind blows to the south, and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.

All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said,

“See, this is new”? It has been already, in the ages before us.

There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to happen among those who come after.

• Proverbs 31:30: “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

• 1 Peter 1:24-25: “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

In today’s world even poor women and men are lost in styles, and they forego the necessities of life for the accidentals. I am astonished with the rings that are placed on the nose, the lips, and around the ankles. The different coloured lipsticks and the long eyelashes do not make any sense. The clothes that are skimpy should be less expensive because there is less cloth. There are exhibitions of vulgarity rather than beauty and simplicity. I feel ashamed of the natural beauty of our Jamaican women and men lost in shame.

Is this life? Is this modern life? Does all this vanity fulfil the meaning and purpose of life? The Christian principles of modesty and humility are thrown out. Lust has been substituted for love. The Lord has told us that the crucified Christ and the self-sacrificing acts of serving the poorest of the poor give us the greatest satisfaction in life. As the woman at the well said, “Give me this water that I may never be thirsty again.” — John 4:15

Father Richard Ho Lung is founder of Missionaries of the Poor, 87 Hanover Street, PO Box 8525, Kingston CSO, Jamaica.

Tel: (876) 550-8987. Email: mopfounder81@gmail.com

Web: www.missionariesofthepoor.org