“Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!”

The Psalms and Wisdom Writings

Psalms, Proverbs, and Sirach

God speaks to us through His human authors with His sacred Scripture. Throughout the Psalms, Proverbs, and Sirach and the entire Bible you can see a common theme. The common message of these great books is to stay faithful and to completely place our trust in God. We can see through history of God’s people that they suffer in some way which leads them to cry out to Him for deliverance. Because of their perseverance and loving trust in God, He delivers them from whatever they struggle through.

Is the Psalms we read that the righteous are blessed. God knows them and they will stand through God’s judgment. The sinners of the world, the great kings of earth try and fool God but their schemes do not work. Only through serving God will we be truly blessed. The sinners may persecute the believers of God, and it may feel as though God has forgotten us, but He has not. They may taunt us and make us suffer but God will always come through. The evil in this world will not triumph. They will be put to shame when God returns to judge the world with justice and truth. We are to remain hopeful and persevere in time of agony because we know that God is coming and He will not forget those who love him and follow His laws. Through out lives we are to praise Him, lifting our song for all to hear of His wonder. He created the earth and all that is in it so we are called to glorify Him through our actions and our life and goodness. When he humbles the proud and exalts His humble and faithful servants we are to rejoice and praise Him. In Psalm, King David tells how our fathers sinned in Exodus by worshipping false gods, forgetting the one true God who had delivered them from bondage in Egypt. The people tempted God and angered him. He had freed them from oppression like but they forget Him and sacrifice to other gods. His love still endures, and he will continue to deliver them even though He knows they will be unfaithful. Just as God still loves us and forgives us when we sin against Him. It is important for us to live our lives completely for God, placing all of our trust in Him and following His commandments.

Proverbs 31 describes what a good woman is. The mother of Lemuel, the king of Massa, describes what a good wife is. She is hardworking, fears the Lord and takes care of her family holding nothing back. It says that she is “far more precious than jewels”. In Proverbs 12 it says that, “a good wife is the crown of her husband.” She brings him honor. The fruit of her hands will bring her praise. Like a good wife God will care for His children and not forget them. We are also all called to serve God like a good wife willingly serves and loves her family.

The book of Sirach tells of the importance of wisdom. If you desire wisdom, then keep God’s commandments. Sirach is full of wisdom, offering the reader advice on how to live one’s life, how to act. It says we are supposed to bring honor to our parents; one who truly honors them will be blessed. Sirach tells not to honor things of sinful nature or those people who are proud, do good to the humble. Also be humble yourself in your wisdom. Do not ignore those who suffer, if you are good to them, God will bless you. Be good to your friends; if they mistreat you do not do the same to them. A person who fears the Lord will do this, strive to grow in wisdom and honor God with their life. One who is wise in his actions and follows Gods commandments will be blessed. There will be consequences for those who act wrongfully. Those who trust in God will bless them and gain Heaven. For in Proverbs chapter 3 is says, “Who ever persevered in the fear of the Lord and was forsaken?” The Lord is a merciful and loving God. He created us capable of knowledge; we should use this gift in order to know God and live our lives fully glorifying His wonderful name.

"Let us give thanks to the Lord our God"

Ch. 14 #3

In the Old Testament, a great amount of importance was given to the many laws which needed to be followed in order to be faithful. Unfortunately, man people acted only to fulfill these laws and forgot about the importance of the intentions and their love for God. This resulted in many hypocrites who followed the rules minimally and acted against God’s law outside of their religious lives. What are some examples of hypocrisy in today’s society? How can this topic relate to Catholic politicians and their belief in the dignity of life? How can this relate to Catholics and their belief in the Holy Eucharist?

So you are sitting next to a woman at Mass, she reaches into her Burberry tote with a price tag of $1000 grabs her $500 Louis Vuitton wallet pulls out a few bucks to drop into the collection basket. People are much more concerned with how much they spend on what they look like rather than helping out the church. The fact that this (completely fictional) woman spent over $1500 on her accessories alone on just today’s outfit is just one example of hypocrisy today. Today’s celebrities are praised for giving only thousands of dollars away to charities while making millions on just one movie. The pretend to give so much away to the poor of the world but it only ends up as though a person of a modest income gave a dollar.

Today’s average politician will tell the voters of his ethics and outstanding moral convictions but are not so strong when it comes to take a stand on a touchy issue such as abortion. They might say that as apart of their Christian beliefs abortion is wrong, but they would not want to take away a woman’s right to choose for the life or death of their baby. They will say they are Christian and believe it is wrong but not truly live and practice their faith in their daily life. In some cases they will openly support issues that are against the Church’s teaching and still come to Mass to receive the Holy Eucharist. They seek only to fulfill the image of a dedicated Christian without truly loving God and His commandments. Their only interest is showing that they have some ties or connections to God but are not willing to sacrifice comfort or wide-spread acceptance because of their views.

Many Catholics today, struggle with the idea that the Holy Eucharist is actually the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Many just go through the motions of attending Sunday Mass, receiving the Eucharist and nonchalantly returning to their seats not understanding the awesome wonder of what they just took part in. Like the ancient Israelites who would just show up at the temple offer what meaningless little sacrifice, many Catholics live not really offering anything back to God.

We need to learn from the Israelites mistakes and learn to live our lives fully dedicated to what God wants us to do and how he wants us to live. By making meaningful sacrifices apart of our daily routine we can grow closer to Him. God really wants us to love Him completely and offer our trials and shortcomings of each day to Him. We must not be hypocrites and live purely for our own satisfaction but for love of God and do everything with Him in mind.