ILS Baccalaureate Vespers

Turn My Eyes from Worthless Things (Ps. 119:37)

June 5, 2025

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

In the ancient church, the renunciations at the time of baptism were more robust. Today, in many churches, when a person is baptized, he is asked if he renounces the devil, and all his works, and all his ways. But in the ancient church, there were often more extensive renunciations. One of these was the word “pomp.” “Do you renounce the devil’s pomps?”

“Pomp” comes for the Latin pompa - an ostentatious procession or display. A popular piece of music at secular graduations is called “Pomp and Circumstance.”

But at least at the time of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who was a fourth-century bishop, pomp was a bad thing, and to get baptized you’d renounce all the devil’s pomp. When Cyril was talking about our verse of the year, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways,” he was thinking about all the world’s pomps, the pompous things that distract us from a life of purpose; the kind of things that slowly destroy our faith. Pomps make us focus on things that seem wonderful, but in the end are meaningless – or worse, evil.

Here’s what Cyril says:

Next you say, “and [I renounce] all his pomp.” The pomp of the devil is the craze for the theater, the horse races in the circus, the wildbeast hunts and all such emptiness, from which the saint prays to God to be delivered in the words, “Turn away my eyes that they may not behold worthless things.” Avoid an addiction to the theater, with its portrayal of sinful conduct, the lewd and unseemly antics of actors and the frantic dancing of degenerates.

Where’s the theater today? It’s inside the black rectangles you see everyone else addicted to.

You were made for more. Jesus redeemed you from all the worthless things. Pay no attention to them.

Was it good that Odysseus, tied to the mast, had his crew plug their ears, but left his own ears open so he could hear the song of the Sirens? He should have plugged his own ears as well.

Don’t go near the Sirens. Don’t try to listen. Turn away your eyes and ears from worthless things. You were made for more.

You were made for life. And true life is not found in graduating from the right schools, getting the right job, acquiring the best stuff. Life comes only from God’s good things. “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.” What are His ways?

It is faith and love. Yesterday in Theology we finally got to the climax of John’s Gospel. Remember what Thomas said? He confessed about Jesus, “My lord and my God!” And then John tells us he wrote down the signs of Jesus “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” “Give me life in your ways.”

The worthless things lead to death. You were made for more. You were made for life. Life now in the way of Jesus, and life in the resurrection that Jesus is preparing for you.

Remember the words of Augustine: “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” God made you for more. He made you for Him. He made you for real life, not the worthless things.

Remember the words of Ambrose: “The world’s pleasures are but shadows, fleeting and false, which draw the soul from the eternal good. Fix your heart on the Word of God, which endures forever.” Turn away from the worthless things, and fix your heart on God’s Word.

Remember the words of Irenaeus: “The devil tempts with promises of false happiness, but the Scriptures guide us to the true life that comes from God alone.” The devil offers counterfeit happiness, and in the end it only leaves you with sorrow.

Remember the words of Athanasius: “In rejecting the devil, we cast aside his empty pomp—his shows of wealth and honor—and cling to Christ, who alone gives true life.” Reject the devil. Reject the pomps. Cling to Christ. Your life is in Him, His ways, He who is the way, and the truth, and the life.

It has been a joy to teach you this year. You have grown and matured so much. I am proud of you.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!