For this week’s homily please watch the video below.

On weekdays this year we’ve been reading from the Book of Sirach at Mass, and today, the 8th Sunday C, we read it along with the Gospel of Luke.  

The early church used the Book of Sirach for teaching people, especially young people, about the Christian faith. The Book of Sirach was once called the Book of Ecclesiastes, a book for the church. I think Sirach is a Jewish contribution to the church’s catechesis.

Who was Sirach? He was probably a devout Jewish father or grandfather who lived in Jerusalem about 200 years before Jesus, and was writing for younger people, his son or grandson likely among them. 

They were facing changing times. Alexander the Great had conquered the Middle East and Jerusalem. Their world was not going to be the same as their fathers’ and grandfathers’. A different  world.

What does Sirach tell them, this new generation? He doesn’t say “You’re on your own. Brush your teeth, stay healthy and I hope you get a good job.” He has more important advice.

 “Fear of the Lord,” he says over and over.  He’s not telling them to be afraid of God, No. He tells them to keep God, all powerful and wise, before them always. Don’t get lost in yourself or a slave to the times you live in. 

God is present everywhere. God’s wisdom is in the world you will live in and in your experience of daily life. Learn from your life. 

Fear of the Lord is like fear of the sea. We may gain new knowledge and build larger vessels to go on its waters, but we still must fear the sea. It has its own laws. We must accept them, if we don’t want to drown.

God’s not only God of the past, God’s with us always, Sirach says. Follow the Creator’s laws. Don’t forget your religious tradition and its heroes. They can help you. God’s with you on your journey into the future, leading you on.

Always know who you are, Sirach says to the young in today’s reading. Listen to what you say and how you think “one’s speech discloses the bent of one’s mind.” Listen to yourself and watch yourself; you’re responsible for your own life. 

“As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace, so in tribulation is the test of the just.” Sirach also knows life can be hard and doesn’t always play out the way we’d like. How we meet disappointments and suffering is one of life’s greatest tests. You’re going to be challenged and mocked and made fun of. Hold on to your faith, Sirach says. Don’t give up. God is with you.

Sirach’s teaching resembles the teaching of Jesus in today’s gospel. 

Keep an eye on yourself. If you only pay attention to others and criticize everyone else. Blind, you will fall into a pit.

 A rotten tree doesn’t bear good fruit. Listen to what you say and how you think. That will tell you what your heart is like. What you’re like.

We need this kind of wisdom today, don’t we? The wisdom of Sirach and of Jesus. A wisdom to be passed on from one generation to the next.