Fr Paul doesn’t buy Qoheleth’s argument in today’s first reading. In fact, he believes, we do remember and learn from those who have come before us. Today, with the feast of St Vincent DePaul and the 322nd birthday of St Alphonsus Liguori, we have perfect examples of that. The organizations St Vincent and St Alphonsus founded to serve the poor in France and Italy remember them in the most meaningful way possible. They have extended their founders’ service to the poor to nearly every country on earth.
There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them.
ECCL 1:2-11
Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening … [He] said, “John I beheaded. Who then is this about whom I hear such things?” And he kept trying to see him.
LK 9:7-9