Scripture Daily

Context No. 740 of 4322 · Sirach

Context · Reflection

Sirach 3:1-16: in context

1Hear me, your father, O my children, and do what you hear, that you all may be safe. 2For the Lord honors the father over the children, and has confirmed the judgment of the mother over her sons. 3He who honors his father will make atonement for sins. 4He who gives glory to his mother is as one who lays up treasure. 5Whoever honors his father will have joy in his own children. He will be heard in the day of his prayer. 6He who gives glory to his father will have length of days. He who listens to the Lord will bring rest to his mother, 7and will serve under his parents, as to masters. 8Honor your father in deed and word, that a blessing may come upon you from him. 9For the blessing of the father establishes the houses of children, but the curse of the mother roots out the foundations. 10Don’t glorify yourself in the dishonor of your father, for your father’s dishonor is no glory to you. 11For the glory of a man is from the honor of his father, and a mother in dishonor is a reproach to her children. 12My son, help your father in his old age, and don’t grieve him as long as he lives. 13If he fails in understanding, have patience with him. Don’t dishonor him in your full strength. 14For the kindness to your father will not be forgotten. Instead of sins it will be added to build you up. 15In the day of your affliction it will be remembered for you, as fair weather upon ice, so your sins will also melt away. 16He who forsakes his father is as a blasphemer. He who provokes his mother is cursed by the Lord.

Sirach devotes a long, warm passage to a single commandment, honor your father and your mother, and turns it over from every side. Honoring a father atones for sins, he says; glorifying a mother is like laying up treasure; the one who honors his parents will have joy in his own children and length of days and answered prayer. He works it as a farmer works a field, promising that the blessing of a father establishes a household and the neglect of a mother tears one up by the roots.

But the heart of it comes when he grows specific, and gentle. My son, help your father in his old age, he writes, and do not grieve him as long as he lives; and if his mind fails, be patient with him, and do not dishonor him while you are in your full strength. That is the hard, particular thing. There comes a day when the parent who was once strong begins to fail, in body or in understanding, and the child who was once carried is now the strong one. Sirach names exactly that moment and asks for patience, not contempt. And he promises that the kindness will not be forgotten; against a lifetime of sins it will be credited, and, he says, melt them like frost in the warmth.

Sirach asks for patience with a parent whose mind is failing, now that I am the strong one. As the power shifts and an elder weakens, am I bearing with them, or quietly dishonoring them in my strength?

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