Chapter 1

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Chapter 1 -  Praise of Wisdom: The Lord is the source of all
wisdom. It is with Him forever. Sirach then admires the
countless grains of sand,the drops of rain,the days of
eternity,the height of the sky,the breadth of the earth,the
abyss. No man can measure these. So he is led to be amazed at
the wisdom of God who made and arranged all these things.
(more of this in chapter 43). Similarly St.Paul, in Romans
1,20-21, said that whoever does not come to know God through
the marvels of creation is inexcusable. That was true in the
days of St.Paul,.as in the days of Sirach. It is even more
true today,when, thanks to wondrous advances in the natural
sciences we see the marvels of God's work far more than these
ancient sages could possibly dream.
 
     We know something of the expanse of the heavens.There are
literally billions of stars up there. Objects that seem
tiny,like Antares in Scorpio, are actually huge - if the
present distance from the earth to the sun, which is around 93
million miles, were tripled, Antares still could not find room
to pass between the earth and the sun. And the Quasars-- we do
not know how distant they are. Many astronomers think the most
remote of them may lie at 14 million light years distant,
though a light year is the distance light travels in a year,
racing day and night at something over 186,000 miles per
second.

Turning our gaze within instead to the giants of the
skies, we know that ever speck of matter is teeming with
atoms. Even the simplest, hydrogen, has one electron and a
nucleus. If the power within it were unleased,it would blast a
city into oblivion. Many atoms are so complex that they used
to be compared to a tiny solar system, with a core and several
orbits for electrons. That idea now has been revised in the
direction of vagueness, for we cannot know for
certain.Therefore we speak of energy levels.

And the human brain has about 100 billion neurons - no
two entirely alike - making a total of something of the order
of 100 trillion synapses, connections, between them .

All this, which our best scientists can understand only
imperfectly - could it have just put itself together out of
matter it created for itself, by its own power, without any
aid from God? It would be like lifting oneself off the floor
by pulling on shoelaces - which does not work, since no one
can give himself what he doesn't have - altitude in this case.
Many think they have proved an atheistic evolution, in which
all these marvels put themselves together. From reason alone,
without the help of faith or theology, we know that,as we
said, a lower form could not give itself higher being as it
would advance up through each scale of complexity. God would
be needed to supply the higher component at each step.

Yet God gives a share in this wisdom to those who love
Him- which means,those who obey Him.|For to love is to will 
good to another for the other's sake.But we cannot will God to
God,infinite goodness, all we can do it make ourselves open to
His benefactions, which Her is please to be able to give to
those who are open. His commands, which are wisdom, tell us
how to be open to receive. To in 1.26: "If you want
wisdom,keep the commandments."

"At the day of his death he will be blessed for
" he who fears the Lord,says 1.13. Sirach still has not been
privileged to see what we see, that although God does  often
reward in this life, the immeasurably best and greatest is yet
to come,in the next life.

Especially contrary to wisdom is an outburst of
unrighteous anger.The patient man will wait and endure,and
then at last,joy will burst forth for him.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Subpages (1): Chapter 2
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