The Holy Spirit draws us today to listen to God's living word, to receive the Lord in the Eucharist, and to give praise and thanks to God. During the week, many of us work hard to make our lives comfortable, aiming for a promotion or raise, earning enough to afford the nicest things, putting money away for easy retirement. Today's readings will give us the bit of shock we need to put those parts of our life in perspective. "Vanity of vanities!" cries the first reading's narrator, ridiculing the idea that we have total control over the rest of our lives. May we reorient ourselves toward what really matters. Today's readings are a wonderful antidote to our culture's attitude that the accumulation of material wealth should be everyone's goal. "Vanity of vanities," this notion, is for what guarantee is there that you will ever be able to enjoy all the wealth you worked for? Greed is idolatry, Paul says in the next reading; instead seek what is above. After all, Jesus points out in the Gospel, the rich man is a fool for thinking he can control the rest of his life through wealth. May today's readings offer a strong argument against the worship of material possessions.