The ability to love is within each of us

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

On Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time our Church invites us first to read and reflect on a passage from the book of Sirach (11:12-28), entitled “Put your trust in God alone.” Our treasure, which follows, is from the Detailed Rules for Monks by Saint Basil the Great, bishop.

Saint Basil the Great was a fourth century Church Father and a Doctor of the Church. Because of the majesty and keenness of his eloquence, he is honored as “the revealer of heavenly things” and “the Great”. He was Bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Asia Minor. He was an influential theologian who supported the Nicene Creed and opposed heresies of the early Christian church, especially Arianism. (Arianism taught that Jesus Christ was not divine). In addition to his work as a theologian, Saint Basil was known for his care of the poor and underprivileged.

Saint Basil the Great's detailed rules for monks, known as the Rule of Basil, emphasized:

Community life: Monks worked together in groups for mutual protection, edification, and prayer.

Poverty: Monks took vows of poverty and shared property.

Liturgical prayer: The Rule of Basil focused on liturgical prayer.

Manual labor: Work was an expression of love for others.

Abstinence: Monks abstained from festivals, banquets, and other activities that were still associated with paganism.

Other aspects of the Rule of Basil include:

The virtues of poverty, obedience, renunciation, and self-abnegation.

The division of the Rule into the "Greater Monastic Rules" and the "Lesser Rules"

Letters written by Basil that outlined the principles of monastic life

The Rule of Basil was a major source for the Rule of St. Benedict and was followed by some Western monasteries. It was first accepted by the monasteries of Cappadocia and gradually spread to the monasteries of the East.

The Wisdom of Ben Sira derives its title from the author, “Yeshua [Jesus], son of Eleazar, son of Sira”. This seems to be the earliest title of the book. The designation “Liber Ecclesiasticus,” meaning “Church Book,” appended to some Greek and Latin manuscripts, is perhaps due to the extensive use the church made of this book in presenting moral teaching to catechumens and to the faithful. The title “Sirach” comes from the Greek form of the author’s name.

The author, a sage who lived in Jerusalem, was thoroughly imbued with love for the wisdom tradition, and for the law, priesthood, Temple, and divine worship. As a wise and experienced observer of life he addressed himself to his contemporaries with the motive of helping them to maintain religious faith and integrity through study of the books sacred to the Jewish tradition.

The book contains numerous well-crafted maxims, grouped by affinity, and dealing with a variety of subjects such as the individual, the family, and the community in their relations with one another and with God. It treats friendship, education, poverty and wealth, laws, religious worship, and many other matters that reflect the religious and social customs of the time.

Written in Hebrew in the early years of the second century B.C., the book was finished by ca. 175. The text was translated into Greek by the author’s grandson after 117 B.C. He also wrote a foreword which contains valuable information about the book, its author, and himself as translator. Until the close of the nineteenth century the Wisdom of Ben Sira was known to Christians in translations, of which the Greek rendering was the most important. From it the Latin version was made. Between 1896 and 1900, again in 1931, and several times since 1956, incomplete manuscripts were discovered, so that more than two thirds of the book in Hebrew is available; these Hebrew texts agree substantially with the Greek. One such text, from Masada, is pre-Christian in date. The New American Bible provides a critical translation based on the evidence of all the ancient texts.

Though not included in the Jewish Bible after the first century A.D., nor, therefore, accepted by Protestants, the Wisdom of Ben Sira has been recognized by the Catholic Church as inspired and canonical. The Foreword, though not the proper part of the book, is always included with it because of its antiquity and importance.