Reconciliation Lectionary: Sirach 28:1-7

The next several days of the daily Lectionary features a brief sojourn in one of the Bible’s longest books, Sirach. I don’t know why Sirach isn’t mined more often for Lectionary usage. True, it doesn’t always make the transition from the ancient Middle-East to the modern world. But it is part of the Jewish heritage we all share as Christians. Wise advice is available for those who listen. The following passage appears in the Rite of Penance, number 113, but not in the next two weeks of Lectionary offerings:.

The vengeful will suffer the Lord’s vengeance;
for he remembers their sins in detail.
Forgive your neighbor’s injustice;
then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.

Does anyone nourish anger against another
and expect healing from the Lord?
Can one refuse mercy to a sinner like oneself,
yet seek pardon for one’s own sins?
If a mere mortal cherishes wrath,
who will forgive (their) sins?

Remember your last days and set enmity aside;
remember death and decay, and cease from sin!
Remember the commandments and do not be angry with your neighbor;
remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook faults.

This passage above is from the USCCB site, which is different in some details from the 2001 Lectionary which is part of the 2010 edition of the Rite of Penance. (Hint: the Rite of Penance includes “man” a few times. But it also alters that litany of remembrance in verses 6-7.)

At any rate, note the three parts to this reading. Part 1 (28:1-2) presents the suggestion that God may well turn life upside-down on us. So we act toward others as we hope the final judgment will go for us. The motivation? It’s sort of a reverse beatitude, isn’t it? “Cursed are the vengeful, for they will have vengeance shown them.”

Part 2 (28:3-5) offers three poetic couplets. Reject anger, and we may receive healing. Embrace mercy, and we will receive pardon. If we cherish wrath, we cannot expect forgiveness.

In part 3 (28:6-7) I think the rabbinical urge to “remember” is important. For the believer, the encounter with one’s sin and one’s personal urges to enact revenge is well known. Or it should be. We know to what Christ calls us: forgiveness. We know it, and yet we don’t always live it. So it’s not a matter of learning anything new. We just have to dredge the principle from our Christian memory. We have to remember it. Then live it as if we know it.

When we are broken, we reassemble the building blocks of virtue, holiness, and our past experiences of God. These experiences may be intellectual or personal or liturgical or some combination of the ways in which God breaks through to human beings. In remembering, we re-member: we put limbs on good intentions. We use our legs, arms, and hands to put into action what we, as penitents, might harbor in our hearts. Ben Sira offers the Christian a brief, but powerful reading for reflection when we come before God as a penitent. Reflecting on it, let us remember our finer calling. And then do it.

 

Pacem In Terris 67-69: Structure and Operation of the Public Authority

According to Pope John, government itself can function virtuously under many different forms::

67. For the rest, it is not possible to give a general ruling on the most suitable form of government, or the ways in which civil authorities can most effectively fulfill their legislative, administrative, and judicial functions.

Some forms will work across all human cultures. But certain aspects particular to a nation or culture must be provided the people:

68. In determining what form a particular government shall take, and the way in which it shall function, a major consideration will be the prevailing circumstances and the condition of the people; and these are things which vary in different places and at different times.

We think, however, that it is in keeping with human nature for the State to be given a form which embodies a threefold division of public office properly corresponding to the three main functions of public authority. In such a State a precise legal framework is provided, not only for the official functions of government, but also for the mutual relations between citizens and public officials. This will obviously afford sure protection to citizens, both in the safeguarding of their rights and in the fulfilment of their duties.

Unfairness and injustice contributes as much as anything to the instability of society:

69. If, however, this juridical and political structure is to realize its potential benefits, it is absolutely essential that public officials do their utmost to solve the problems that arise; and they must do so by using policies and techniques which it is within their competence to implement, and which suit the actual condition of the State. It is also essential that, despite constantly changing conditions, legislators never disregard the moral law or constitutional provision, nor act at variance with the exigencies of the common good. And as justice must be the guiding principle in the administration of the State, and executives must thoroughly understand the law and carefully weigh all attendant circumstances, so too in the courts: justice must be administered impartially, and judges must be wholly incorrupt and uninfluenced by the solicitations of interested parties. The good order of society also requires that individuals and subsidiary groups within the State be effectively protected by law in the affirmation of their rights and the performance of their duties, both in their relations with each other and with government officials.( Cf. Pius XII’s broadcast message, Christmas 1942, AAS 35 (1943) 21)

We have certainly suffered this in the United States, and it seems we have not totally escaped it today. The situation seems worse in most Latin American countries. Friends who visit and live there report that it has been particularly difficult to emerge into the status of peaceable and stable nationhood because of widespread corruption and the lack of confidence in the basic principle of fairness.

 

Dodging Tornadoes in Iowa

Oklahoma got the brunt of funnel clouds I see. While we were watching The King’s Speech tonight, the sirens went off in town. Heavy winds and rain, but nothing to pluck us off to Oz.

Unbeknownst to my wife and the young miss I checked our basement digs where we would head in case of a tornado. So far, only the distant rumble of thunder. Time for me to pray, then get to bed. Hopefully you readers have escaped the worst of bad Midwestern weather. It’s nice to live on a large continent … except for the tendency to spawn twisters.

 

Pacem In Terris 65-66: Harmony Between Public Authority’s Two Forms of Intervention

One serious drawback of the modern lobbying system::

65. The common welfare further demands that in their efforts to co-ordinate and protect, and their efforts to promote, the rights of citizens, the civil authorities preserve a delicate balance. An excessive concern for the rights of any particular individuals or groups might well result in the principal advantages of the State being in effect monopolized by these citizens. Or again, the absurd situation can arise where the civil authorities, while taking measures to protect the rights of citizens, themselves stand in the way of the full exercise of these rights. “For this principle must always be retained: that however extensive and far-reaching the influence of the State on the economy may be, it must never be exerted to the extent of depriving the individual citizen of his freedom of action. It must rather augment his freedom, while effectively guaranteeing the protection of everyone’s essential, personal rights.” (John XXIII’s encyclical letter Mater et Magistra, AAS 53 (1961) 415)

66. And the same principle must be adopted by civil authorities in their various efforts to facilitate the exercise of rights and performance of duties in every department of social life.

Applying the important question: When is help not helpful? Discerning parents know it. Skilled teachers practice it. The key intervention here is not to “give” someone something, but rather to facilitate a person’s or group’s ability to “augment” the experience of being more fully human.

 

On My Bookshelf: The King of Infinite Space

When I was a senior in college, I took two upper level math courses to satisfy a degree requirement for General Science. I was in way over my head in Number Theory. But I survived. Two of us were enrolled in Math 226, otherwise known as Geometry.

Those two courses taught me how to think like a mathematician: take nothing for granted; prove everything; build an edifice by small and careful steps. If only I had been thinking like a mathematician before I took four semesters of calculus and statistics.

We did not study the historical (?) Euclid. We didn’t directly study his seminal work Elements, either. But this book by David Berlinski dips into the man (what we can deduce or guess from those who wrote about him) and about some of the elements of his work in mathematics.

This book gets off to a difficult start. It’s not written like most popular science books, though there are elements of personal interest from great mathematicians. The author tries, maybe a bit too hard, to be literary. I do like his prose. But he takes too long to say what he needs to say.

Dr Berlinski doesn’t say everything. He doesn’t distill all of Euclidean geometry into 156 pages. He spends a lot of ink on interesting things like analytical geometry and the parallel postulate. By Chapter IX he gets to the advent of non-Euclidean geometry–things like how lines and two-dimensinoal shapes behave on something like a sphere. The earth’s surface, for example.

So we come to a final question about the title. Is Euclid still king in a scientific culture that stands with one foot in the fantastic? Elements was a geometry textbook for more than two millennia, but no longer. Forget space; does Euclid have any authority in human time?

I’m probably not thinking like a mathematician any more. So this book was a bit difficult for me, though not in the concepts it presents. Can I recommend it? Sure: if you like geometry.

 

Pacem In Terris 63-64: Duty of Promoting the Rights of Individuals

Today in Pacem in Terris:

63. In addition, heads of States must make a positive contribution to the creation of an overall climate in which the individual can both safeguard (their) own rights and fulfill (their) duties, and can do so readily. For if there is one thing we have learned in the school of experience, it is surely this: that, in the modern world especially, political, economic and cultural inequities among citizens become more and more widespread when public authorities fail to take appropriate action in these spheres. And the consequence is that human rights and duties are thus rendered totally ineffective.

This experience would seem to be contrary to the beliefs and actions of our more recent American line-ups of political leaders. Both major parties seem more or less willing to let the inequities continue, impinging on rights and pushing duty into the background.

64. The public administration must therefore give considerable care and thought to the question of social as well as economic progress, and to the development of essential services in keeping with the expansion of the productive system. Such services include road-building, transportation, communications, drinking-water, housing, medical care, ample facilities for the practice of religion, and aids to recreation. The government must also see to the provision of insurance facilities, to obviate any likelihood of a citizen’s being unable to maintain a decent standard of living in the event of some misfortune, or greatly increased family responsibilities.

The government is also required to show no less energy and efficiency in the matter of providing opportunities for suitable employment, graded to the capacity of the workers. It must make sure that (workers) are paid a just and equitable wage, and are allowed a sense of responsibility in the industrial concerns for which they work. It must facilitate the formation of intermediate groups, so that the social life of the people may become more fruitful and less constrained. And finally, it must ensure that everyone has the means and opportunity of sharing as far as possible in cultural benefits.

The trick is to make government work as truly representative of all the people, to minimize the bias of lobbying (or to see that it is spread more fairly among all people) and other privileges. If this document were being revisited today, I suspect Pope Francis would address this carefully.

What do you make of public administration assisting in the development of “ample” religious facilities? Pope John doesn’t single out churches, does he?

 

FBV 39

Bible verses seven, eight, and nine: line up:

The second of two entries from the Psalms:

Be still and know that I am God!

The second of two entries from Saint Paul:

So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

And the fifth of five entries from the Gospels, but the only one from Matthew:

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

And here’s the ballot:

The final three will be up Tuesday.