the whole of life is worship - 8th week tuesday

We focus our reflection on our first reading, from the book of Sirach.  The other name for the book is Ecclesiasticus.  The Book of Sirach was written by a Jewish scribe by the name of Joshua ben Sirach in Jerusalem.  The book is written in a way that it sounds like a father giving advice to his son and because of this it was thought that the book was used to train young Jewish men for positions of leadership. 

The reading today can best be summarized by what PCP II said about our life of worship - life must become worship.  Worship is not just going to church and celebrating masses and doing novenas.  Worship is not just going to church at a prescribed day of the week and saying the prescribed formulas for prayers.  The whole of life can become worship.  The way we live our lives can become an offering of praise and reverence to God.  Sirach says: “he who observes the commandments sacrifices a peace offering;  in works of charity one offers fine flour; and when one gives alms he presents his sacrifice of praise.”  The whole of life is worship of God and worship of God is not limited in church or just at a certain time of the day.

And not only that but our worship of God, our going to mass, can become more authentic and more pleasing when we have lived our lives well, when we have lived faithfully the precepts of the Lord.  Sirach for example says:  “To refrain from evil pleases the LORD, and to avoid injustice is an atonement.  The just one’s offering enriches the altar and rises as a sweet odor before the Most High.”  So the good and honourable life makes prayer more real because there is no disconnect between what we do for God and what we do in our day to day lives.

The book of Sirach also calls for generosity.  He calls it freewill gifts.  It is something that you give freely, something that you contribute joyfully, in the words of Sirach you give it with a cheerful countenance.  And we give to God because he has given us generously.  And when we give cheerfully he will repay sevenfold.  God cannot be outdone in his generosity.  Sa kaalwan indi magpapierdi ang Dios.

There is a lot of wisdom in the book of Sirach.  Rightly it is part of what we can in the bible as Wisdom literature because it gives good advices, practical norms in relationships and wisdom that comes from experience and from observing the commands of the Lord. 

Today we celebrate the dedication of the Jaro cathedral.  We celebrate it as a solemnity and we celebrate it because the Jaro Cathedral is our Mother church.  This year is especially significant because tomorrow May 27 is the 150^th anniversary of our diocese.  In 1865 May 27 Pope Pius IX in the Papal Declaration entitled Qui ab initio.  So we are 150 years old and it might be good to examine how much we have grown as a people in our love of and service for the Lord, how much have we grown in our worship of God.  Remember the whole of life must be worship.