New and Improved

Homily for Mass @ CHS                   Grandparent’s Day                             September 27, 2018
Fr. Albert                                                                                            Catholic High, New Iberia

“New and improved.” That tagline advertisement is just about everywhere. The next iphone, the next computer, the next update of fortnight. Things are always getting improved, getting better, becoming new again. And as the world changes, we start to see differences between different generations.

One hilarious illustration of this difference I saw in a video a while back. It features a dad who decided to test his daughter’s ability to understand how things used to work. He’s sitting down talking on a landline phone, complete with the curly cord. When he finishes, he calls his teenage daughter over and asks her to hang up the phone for him. She takes the receiver and stares at it, completely baffled. She starts to say there’s no “hang up” button. The longer it takes, the more the dad cracks up laughing and the more frustrated the girl becomes until finally the mother walks over and puts the receiver back on the hook, a little exasperated at the whole scene.

And can we blame the girl’s confusion at the request of her father? Most people my age and younger, when they talk about a phone, they mean a cellphone or even a smartphone, which requires no hook. “hanging up” is just a metaphor. And its pretty amazing how far technology has come and what it enables us to do. To this day, there are many people who do not really understand how to use smartphones and even computers because, when they were kids, no one had even imagined such a thing. New and improved. Things are always changing.

And yet, are they really? Qoholeth, the author of our first reading doesn’t think so. “Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity” he says, “nothing is new under the sun.” Is he wrong? Here’s another piece of internet humor that maybe makes his point. It’s this question: if you were to go back in time 100 or 200 years, what would be the hardest thing to explain to someone from that time about our time here? It gives this answer: I have in my pocket right now a device that allows me to access almost all human knowledge and I use it primarily to look at pictures of cats. It might seem like no big deal, but to people who would eagerly wait months at a time for the release of the next book, the idea of wasting so much power and access would be pretty shocking.

But it shouldn’t be. Sure, technology changes and our culture changes, but we’re still human beings. Ask your grandparents. They’ve probably seen this pattern many, many times. Human beings invent something new and promise each other that we’ll solve all our problems with it or at least that this is one step in the direction of solving all our problems. But what actually happens? It takes no time at all for this “new and improved” thing to get used for war, for entertainment (like cat pictures), for lust, and for greed.

And that’s what makes Qoholeth right. Whatever the language, culture, or technology, human beings come back to the same universal faults and tendencies as every other human being: pride, lust, and greed. But it doesn’t stop us from chasing after these things.

We want something “new and improved.” The next device, the next president, the next album, movie, or game. And when we get it, it holds our attention for a while, but Qoholeth is right when he says, “The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.” The satisfaction never lasts. Again, ask your grandparents. Ask them if they think humanity will ever solve all it’s problems. If they think technology will ever completely satisfy everything we want.

There is nothing new under the sun. Except what is also above the sun. King Herod, like the rest of humanity, is curious and looking for something “new and improved,” something entertaining or satisfying. That’s why, when he hears about Jesus’ teachings and miracles, he “kept trying to see him.” Unlike the rest of humanity, there is truly something new and improved about this man. He can raise the dead and cast out demons. Even more importantly, Jesus was a man who does not fall into the same old pride, lust, and greed that afflicts the rest of us.

He wanders around homeless and poor, talking to unimportant and difficult people. But he seems happy when he does it. He knows people are trying to kill him, but he lets them do it… he almost looks forward to it. Unfortunately, when Herod finally does meet Jesus, he doesn’t get it. Though Jesus really is offering something new and improved, Herod is so focused on the same old idea of entertainment that his misses it entirely. Herod, and so many of us, never figure out that what we really need is not some new thing to satisfy our desire for entertainment and pleasure… what we need is to say no to those desires long enough to recognize what we truly want.

The man we celebrate today, St. Vincent de Paul, had to learn that same lesson, even though he was a priest! He just wanted a comfortable life: a place to live, food and drink, social recognition. In 17^th century France – and in many places today – being a priest is a great way to get all of those things. But then St. Vincent finally encountered something “new under the sun.” In hearing the deathbed confession of a poor peasant, he realized it was all vanity. Suddenly, he forgot all about the comfortable life and deliberately, on purpose, lived like a poor man and spent the rest of his live serving the poor and unimportant and uninteresting people in this world.

Why? Because the only thing truly “new under the sun” is the one who is also above the sun. As another saint describes it, God is a beauty “ever ancient and ever new.” Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, shows us the “new and improved” way to real happiness: sacrifice. The nicer word for sacrifice is love, but real love always requires sacrifice. Jesus was happy to die because he was offering himself as a sacrifice of love for us. St. Vincent de Paul voluntarily lived like a poor man and “wasted” his time on poor people because he loved them and wanted to sacrifice for them. And it made him happy. Unlike your smartphones.

After 2012, depression in young people rose by 25%, 50%, and sometimes 70%. What changed that year? That was when over 50% of children had smartphones. Don’t get me wrong, technology is not intrinsically evil, but it’s a big problem if you think it, or anything in this world can make you happy. It is an illusion of “new and improved” that is really the same old meaningless chase after pride, lust, and greed. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Jesus, St. Vincent de Paul, and all the saints show us the only exception to that rule. Sacrificial love. They loved and served the poor. But they didn’t do it because they though they could solve poverty or fix society’s problems. Catholics don’t serve the poor because we can solve the problem. We serve them simply because we love them, because God loves them and because God loves us. The problems of this world cannot be solved, but the people who suffer from them can always be loved.

You want to be happy? Then sacrifice for someone. Or pick something bigger than yourself and sacrifice to serve it. I am only happy when I live my priesthood for you. Every time I get too comfortable: too much entertainment, too much food and comfort, I become miserable. That’s true for every vocation.

You want new and improved? Then sacrifice your time, your money, and your life for God and others. And when God raises you from the dead… that will make you new and improved.