These
past two weeks, we have been listening to the wisdom of Sirach instruct us in a
moral life according to God’s laws.
However, today, we hear a prayer that is offered up to the Lord on
behalf of the people of Israel, asking for God’s assistance and for the light
of his mercy. It is interesting that
this prayer also foreshadows the coming of the Messiah, asking God to gather
the tribes of Israel and to fill Jerusalem and its temple once again with the
glory of God. By showing his mercy to
the people of Israel, he will show his love and justice to all the nations.
As I heard about this very sincere and
earnest plea to God in Sirach today, I thought about a homily that I recently
read from Pope Francis. He said that if
you go to a theologian and ask him about Mary, he will tell you exactly who
Mary is. But if you go to the people in
the pews and ask them about Mary, they will be able to show you exactly how
Mary loves. Sometimes we can get swept
up with fancy words and complicated explanations, but the simplicity of knowing
what God is about and living God’s truth in our lives – that is what our faith
is all about.
We
cry out to the Lord, appealing to his love and mercy. We pray to the Lord, asking him to remember
his promises of old. We live out our
faith as best as we can and we lift up our prayer to the Lord. That is the best we can do 
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