DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Wisdom of Sirach
(01/24) A
Kellia Reading for the Feast of Gregory the Theologian
A Confessor’s Prayer: WSir
51:1-12 SAAS, especially vss. 11, 12: “My prayer was heard, for You saved me
from destruction, and rescued me from a time of evil. Therefore I will thank and praise You, and I will bless the name of the Lord.” This prayer of an ancient confessor, crafted before Christ, speaks
well of every godly defender of Orthodox truth like the righteous Gregory the
Theologian. Ever a defender of the
Nicene truth, he spells out what integrity cost him: “What sufferings
have we failed to undergo? Ill-usage? Threats? Banishment? Plunder? ....The desecration
of temples by the blood of the saints, till...they became
charnel-houses.” And his response?
“And for which of these have we requited the wrong doers? For the wheel of fortune gave us the
power of rightly treating those who so treated us...” yet he never took
revenge.
This disciple of Christ, left public service saying,
“The power to requite them seemed to me a sufficient vengeance on those
who had wronged us,” yet his enemies were joyful as he left - as at his
death - being rid of Gregory.
Father Alexander Schmemann illumines such an
anomaly: “...death is above all a ‘spiritual reality,’ of
which one can partake while being alive, from which one can be free while lying
in the grave. Death here is man’s
‘separation from Life,’ that is, from God Who is the only Giver of
life....” It was death for them, but life for Gregory.
Even
a cursory examination of the present passage reveals a set of verses, really a
poem that is a prayer of thanksgiving to God for deliverance. The author of the prayer, Jesus ben Sirach, was a well-schooled,
professional teacher of the Old Testament law. He penned this prayer, sometime before
132 BC. The prayer reflects his gratitude for some unnamed physical salvation,
as his words tell us: “...You redeemed my body from destruction...”
(vs. 2).
Wonderfully, the prayer, when read from the evangelical
viewpoint, shows how the mature in faith witness fearlessly in the face of
afflictions - including, pain, torture and possible or actual physical
death. For when, like Gregory, they
are caught in circumstances which demand that they renounce their deepest
convictions concerning the Life that is in Christ, at least they face the
possibility of separation from “...Christ who is our life...” (Col.
3:4) - by retreating from the Truth. If at such a time they lift up
supplication and pray for deliverance (WSir. 51:9),
God does not forsake them in such “...days of affliction...” (vs. 10).
Rather, they are delivered “From suffocation by an encircling
fire....From the depths of the belly of Hades...(vss.
4,5). Notice that the prayer reveals in detail how God will act to save us from
all sorts of spiritual death. Sirach speaks of “...the snare of a slanderous
tongue” (vs.2). Those who
would draw us from the truth of Christ often defame us and God, thinking Him to
be a figment of our imagination - some mere psychological device to help with
stress. The prayer mentions
“...being devoured...” (vs. 3), that is, confrontation with anger. There is always a temptation to return
hate for hate, anger for anger, bitterness for bitterness - but such is death,
Beloved of Christ!
To what, then, do the prayer and Saint Gregory direct
us? - to
our true strength under duress: “Then I remembered Your mercy, O
Lord” (vs. 8). “Then I sent up my supplication from the earth and prayed
about the instability caused by death” (vs. 9). It is life to cry out to Life Himself:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner!” He turns us from those invitations of
the world to die to the truth in us; and, at the same time, fills us with life:
He will save us from destruction, and rescue us from a time of evil (vs.
11). Truly, let us say with Sirach, “Therefore I will thank and
praise You, and I will bless the name of the Lord” (vs. 12).
O Lord save Thy people and bless Thine
inheritance, granting to Thy People victory over all their enemies, and by the
power of Thy Cross, preserving Thy Kingdom.
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