Homily Twenty-Fifth Tuesday of Ordinary Time (Proverbs 21:1-13) “A Stitch in Time Saves Nine”
Homily Twenty-Fifth Tuesday of Ordinary Time (Proverbs 21:1-13) “A Stitch in Time Saves Nine”
The first time I heard of the concept of proverbs was when our history class studied Benjamin Franklin in American History in grade school. Franklin wrote a pamphlet every year called “Poor Richard’s Almanac.” In that little booklet was all kinds of advice about farming, homemaking, etc. Scattered throughout the text were proverbs.
Proverbs are said to be short pithy sayings that contain truths that we know to be valid. How do we know they are true? We know because of our own personal experience and common sense.
Franklin’s proverbs reflect the culture of the American Colonies. A lot of them reflect the Protestant work ethic which still influences our society. The main idea is that if you work hard enough in America you can achieve anything.
Only later did I read the Book of Proverbs in the Scriptures. This book is part of the Wisdom Literature of the Bible. Other works in this genre are writings like the Book of Psalms or Sirach. These writings were collected when the People of Israel were living in diaspora. The belief was that the Jewish culture had its own knowledge and ethics that needed to be preserved. Wisdom Literature was very important for the Jews as they tried to maintain their identity when the lived outside of Israel.
The Jewish proverbs can be wonderful points of meditation for us. Proverbs is not meant to be read like a novel, but each proverb is meant to be pondered. A good use of these scriptural nuggets would be to take one each day and meditate on it. We might want to start with the proverbs we are reading this week.
We don’t read very often from the Book of Proverbs at Mass. The book is a great spiritual work. We can all benefit from cracking open our Bible and reflecting on the verses we find there.
Reflection Questions:
- Have I ever read through the Wisdom Literature of the Bible? Why not?
- The Book of Proverbs is an easy part of the Bible to read, little explanation is needed. Could I spend the week praying with the proverbs we are reading at Mass?
Dear Parishioners,
The days are getting shorter and we are going to have to be indoors more and more. This includes coming indoors for Mass. This means we will probably be having more people in church. When we have more congregants in church this means we need to pay stricter attention to COVID protocols, so people feel safe.
One of the protocols is that we ask people to sit with their household six feet apart from others. Purple tape marks are on the pews at six-foot intervals. Please use those marks to sit six feet from the person next to you especially if they are not from your family. An easy way to observe physical distances is to sit on the ends of the pews, not in the middle.
May Our Lady and All the Angels and Saintes watch over you.
Fr. Mark