Thank you, Wolseley–very helpful info!
2nd Gen: I’d love to hear your story about how Sirach changed your life.
In my early 20’s, just when I had become “edumacated” and felt this rush of worldly wisdom from school and all these new enlightments I was experiencing, I came to a point that with all my secular and worldly success, I felt empty. I had of course stopped going to Church as soon as I was out of my mother’s grasp in my late teens.
Anyway, during a particularly spiritually painful night, I picked up a Catholic version of The Good News Bible that my Mom had left before she moved to Puerto Rico. It was late at night, about 11ish.
I came across Sirach and just began reading. And reading. And reading. I didn’t stop until the sun came up.
My whole outlook on life changed. I literally saw myself in those words, especially in the personal flaws Sirach speaks on. I was basically forced to confront myself and look in the spiritual mirror.
I wept that night and began my reversion back to Christianity. First, it took me a few years just to humble myself to allow God back into my life. Or I should say, that no matter what I did, He was always there. I had to acknowledge that I needed Him.
One night, I began praying and crying and crying and praying. I ended up shredding my shirt and taking off all of my clothes and yelling to God to take me, body, mind and soul as I came into this world, naked. I fell to the floor in tears and fell to sleep.
The next day, I began to live a much more pious life, I let go of the vanity and pride which had me so imprisoned spiritually and internally. I let go of materialism, of my carnal nature and sought to live a quiet life.
And Sirach was what set me off. I use that book as the guide for how I should act. I had been reading self help books up until that point but realized that they had all plagerized Sirach and this work was written thousands of years ago.
It scared the “hell” out of me literally.
By the end of my 20’s, I was on my way back to Catholicism. Once my personal studies revealed secular truths that matched scripture, I knew that in being a Christian, I had to be a Catholic. I was born a cradle Catholic…I just needed to bring my “prodigal” self back home.
At 30, I did my confirmation with tears in my eyes.
My life changed even more since then. It’s true that once a person is confirmed in The Faith, The Holy Spirit occupies you even against your will…I believe that the vow of one’s Confirmation overrides the negative human freedoms we have. It’s like giving God permission to take over when you’re steering the ship in the wrong direction.
I’m not saying that I’ve been a saint since then, but I can honestly say that if it wasn’t for my humbling myself to God, I wouldn’t be alive today.
Sirach made me do the right things and God rewarded according to my deeds and that encouraged me to continue the lessons I learned in Sirach and God continued to bless me.
When I hear Jesus speaking in The Gospels, I see Sirach.
I feel sorry for those who allow men to tell them what they can and cannot believe is God’s Word based on human reasoning.
It’s like they dont’ trust God to protect them from being misindoctrinated. Their faith is in man (in their own interpretation) and not in God.
But thank God He saved me from myself.
Amen.
