MAY302023

After Lent and the Easter season we are back in Ordinary (counted) time. The Scripture readings in ordinary time are done as a continuous reading (lectio continuo) — picking a book in the Bible and going through it chapter by chapter. The gospel for the next several weeks will be taken from St. Mark. The first reading (which can be taken from either the Old or the New Testament) for these days is from the Book of Sirach. Sirach has an interesting history. It was known primarily from the Greek version that the grandson of Ben Sirach translated about the year 132BC. The Hebrew original (175BC?) was only found in modern times. As a result the book is not in the Hebrew or Protestant Bibles. The Book itself consists of moral exhortation on how to live a good life. This was a time when Jewish society was captured by Greek and Roman hegemony. How does one live in a hostile world? It was so popular in the early church that it was referred to as “the Church book,” Ecclesiasticus.  While it can be read with great profit today it portrays personal piety and reflects a certain reluctance to take on society’s problems. We certainly need to develop the personal holiness that Sirach calls for but we also need to confront a world which does not yet look like the place of peace and justice that God intends.