Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
From: Sirach 27:4-7
The importance of effective speech
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[4] When a sieve is shaken, the refuse remains;
so a man’s filth remains in his thoughts.
[5] The kiln tests the potter's vessels;
so the test of a man is in his reasoning.
[6] The fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree;
so the expression of a thought discloses the cultivation of a man's mind.
[7] Do not praise a man before you hear him reason,
for this is the test of men.
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Commentary:
26:28-27:30. From the point of view of themes, it is not easy to see any particular unity to this passage, or indeed unified parts within it. As on other occasions, the proverbs here vary often derive from popular wisdom and thus encourage the reader to go beyond a superficial understanding of his situation to a realization that his ideas and actions have consequences that may rebound upon him (cf., for example vv. 25-30). However the underlying purpose of the sacred writer is a religious one -- teaching people not to sin (cf. 26:28-27:1), to do nothing hateful to the Lord (cf. 27:24), to pursue justice always (cf. 27:8).
There is also in these verses a call to know when to speak and when to listen (27:11-21). The wise man is sensible and prudent: you can identify him by how he speaks. He has the great skill of knowing how to speak the truth in the right way at the right time, so that his conversation is always pleasant and sensitive, even when others try to lower the moral tone. “Charity and respect for the truth should dictate the response to every request for information or communication. The good and safety of others, respect for privacy, and the common good are sufficient reasons for being silent about what ought not be known, or for making use of a discreet language. The duty to avoid scandal often commands strict discretion. No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it. (cf. Sir 27:17; Prov 25:9-10)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2489).
The manner of the resurrection of the dead
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[54] When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:“Death is swallowed up in victory.” [55] “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?”
[56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. [58] Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
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Commentary:
54-58. The chapter ends with the words of joy and thanksgiving to God for the tremendous benefits bought by the death and resurrection of our Lord, benefits which result from his victory over those enemies which had made man their slave – sin, death and the devil. Jesus Christ, by dying on the cross – offering himself to God the Father in atonement for all the offences of mankind – has conquered sin and the devil, who attained power through sin. And his victory was completed by his resurrection, which routed death. This has made it possible for his elect to be raised in glory, and is the cause of their resurrection. “In Christ”, Pope John Paul II explains, “justice is done to sin at the price of his sacrifice, of his obedience ‘even to death’ (Phil 2:8). He who was without sin, ‘God made him to be sin for our sake’ (2 Cor 5:21). Justice is also brought to bear upon death, which from the beginning of man’s history has been allied to sin. Death has justice done to it at the price of the death of the one who was without sin and who alone was able – by means of his own death – to inflict death upon death (cf. 1 Cor 15:54f) […]. In this way the cross, the Cross of Christ, in fact, makes us understand the deepest roots of evil, which are fixed in sin and death; thus the Cross becomes an eschatological sign. Only in the eschatological fulfillment and definitive renewal of the world will love conquer, in all the elect, the deepest sources of evil, bringing as its fully mature fruit the kingdom of life and holiness and glorious immortality. The foundation of this eschatological fulfillment is already contained in the Cross of Christ and in his death. The fact that Christ ‘was raised the third day’ (1 Cor 15:4) constitutes the final sign of the messianic mission, a sign that perfects the entire revelation of merciful love in a world that is subject to evil. At the same time it constitutes the sign that foretells ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ (Rev 21:1) when God ‘will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away’ (Rev 21:4)” (Dives in misericordia, 8).
56-57 The Apostle here provides a summary of his teaching on the connexions between death, sin and the Mosaic Law, a teaching which is given in a much more elaborate form in chaps 5-7 of his Letter to the Romans. Sin is the sting of death in the sense that death entered the world through sin (cf. Rom 5:12) to do harm to men. Sin, in its turn, grew as a result of and was reinforced by the Mosaic Law: the Law did not induce people to sin but it was the occasion of increase in sin in the sense that made it plainer where good lay and yet did not provide the grace to enable man to avoid sin (cf. Commentary on 1 Cor, ad loc.).
58 In these last words of the chapter St Paul exhorts Christians to fight on, full of hope, convinced that work in the ordinary activities of one’s day is an offering pleasing to God, a means to holiness and a way to attain final victory with Christ. “Do not ever forget that after death,” St J Escriva reminds us, “you will be welcomed by Love itself. And in that love of God you will find as well all the noble loves which you had on earth. The Lord has arranged for us to spend this brief day of our earthly existence working and, like his only-begotten Son, “doing good” (Acts 10:38). Meanwhile we have to be on our guard, alert to the call St Ignatius of Antioch felt within his soul as the hour of his martyrdom approached: ‘Come to the Father’ (Epistle to the Romans, VII); come to your Father, who anxiously awaits you.