January 12, 2025

REASONING

Sirach 27:4-7

When a sieve is shaken, the refuse remains;
So a man’s filth remains in the way he reasons.
As a furnace tests a potter’s vessels,
So the test of a man is in the way he reasons.
As fruit reveals how a tree is cultivated,
So a man’s reasoning process reveals his heart.
Do not praise a man before he reveals the way he reasons,
For this is the way a man is tested.

Personal Challenge

I am still amazed at how the passage that comes up for me to use for my daily journal is so perfect for the events of the moment. Sirach nails the issues that we are seeing related to reasoning today. Reasoning is not happening with what appears to be about 50% of our American population. What remains when you pour a mixture of stuff into a sieve and shake it? You get everything that you did not want left in the results. Sieves are so often used to let the good, that which we see as pure, filter through the sieve and the junk, the refuse, left behind. Sirach uses this imagery to articulate that when good, godly, and truthful reasoning has been sifted out, or eliminated, then all that you have left is filth. So much of today's "reasoning "is revealing the filth of peoples thoughts and the lack of their true ability to reason. Just read through these verses and you will see how Sirach nails today's dilemma. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!