Ecclesiasticus 17:1-15 / Mark 10:13-16
Mankind have invented and created a huge array of wonderful and marvelous and awesome things.
Many of these inventions and creations have contributed to the good of mankind.
Yet there are also many inventions and creations that are detrimental and even destructive to mankind.
Regardless of which is which, for all that mankind can invent and create, man cannot create himself.
He may even try to push the moral parameters of science and research to clone himself but he knows that he can't create himself.
As a matter of fact, man can't even create the earth from which he came forth. And that is what the 1st reading is reminding us.
"The Lord fashioned man from the earth, to consign him back to it". And more than that, man's ways are always under the eye of the Lord, and they cannot be hidden from His sight.
So for man, it is from ashes to ashes, from dust to dust. Yet in the time between coming to life from dust and turning into ashes, man has that ability to rise to his best or sink into his worst.
So as we reflect on the reality and the finality of ourselves and our lives, may we realize that the best that we can be is to be obedient children of God our Father.
Let us be like those little children in the gospel whom Jesus embraced and blessed. That would be the most wonderful, marvelous and awesome thing that can happen in our lives.