Sirach 44

It is right that he began to enumerate the holy fathers, not from Adam, who transgressed the divine commandment and was expelled from paradise, but from Enoch, who walked with God and was taken up into paradise. And in this way the splendor of the saints shines, because from the pains of this world they are taken up to the peace of the heavenly kingdom. It is believed that he will return together with Elijah at the end of the world, to counsel men and women so that they would turn from their sins to repentance. In this way, together with his companion, he will pay the debt of death in the persecution of the antichrist.

The inheritance that he was promised symbolizes two things. The comparison with the sand of the sea indicates the Jews, who are sterile. And the comparison with the stars of heaven designates all the people who believe in Christ, who by the light of the resurrection will shine like the stars of heaven. "Every star in fact differs from another in splendor. So also in the resurrection." His descendents will inherit "from one sea to the other, from the river to the ends of the earth," since Christ, born of the descendents of Abraham, rules from one sea to the other and from the river to the ends of the earth, and his church, his very body, fills all the limits of the world. One also notes that Abraham represents in himself three things. In the first place, the Savior, who, leaving his family, came into this world. Second, the Father, when he sacrificed his only Son. Third, by the fact that he had welcomed three men and adored one of them, he symbolized the saints, who joyfully received the coming of Christ in the flesh. This mystery of the incarnation is the work of the entire holy Trinity but was realized only in the Son. "And the Word was made flesh and came to dwell among us."

The godless and sinners were not worthy of memory, because if the Scripture says something of them, it does so not to praise them but to blame. In the psalm it is written of them, "The fortresses of the enemy have been pulled down forever, the memory of the city you destroyed has disappeared. Their memory has disappeared with a roar." At the end of the world, in fact, to the devil's joy, those who it has been determined belong to his city will fall, and their memory will perish with a fantastic din when they go to eternal punishment.

The second firmness of faith comes from the outstanding reputation of the witnesses. This consists in three things: the high reputation of their merits, miracles and martyrdom. The high reputation of merits belonged to the patriarchs. Hence in Ecclesiasticus: Let us now praise men of renown. The patriarchs did not perform miracles, but they were famous for their merits. They were the beginning of Scriptures which are concerned with the apparitions that occurred to them.

The third exercise of the gift of piety is in the abundance of interior compassion. Of this it is said in Ecclesiasticus: "These are men of mercy, whose acts of piety have not failed; with their seed good things endure."

Dearest ones! You ought to run through the lives of the holy Fathers, and you will see that these are men of mercy, namely Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and Samuel. What was the piety of Noah! For a hundred years he did nothing but build the ark, so that he might save the human race. How great was the piety in the most sacred Abraham! God descended to strike the cities in which there were abominations of sin; and Abraham interceded with the Lord for them and wrested from the Lord that if He should find ten just men in the cities, the Lord would spare them. How great was the piety of Joseph! Who, sold by his brothers — indeed his brothers wanted to kill him — yet he guarded his brothers, governed and enriched them and their sons; and he had piety toward preserving the whole world by gathering and storing grain. How great was the piety of Moses! Who loved the people provoking the Lord and prayed to the Lord for them saying: "Hear me, Lord, this people has sinned: either forgive this people this offense, or if you do not, blot me out of your book which you have written." Bernard gives the example of a woman who has her little child and is outside the house. If it were said to her: leave your little child outside the house, and you enter the house; she would not want to enter the house, such that the child would remain outside. So Moses willed that the Lord would forgive the people their sin, or that He would blot him from the book of life. So it was with Samuel, when the people sought a king; afterwards the people recognized that Samuel had governed the people well, and when the people had sinned, they feared that Samuel would not want to pray to the Lord for them. And the people asked him to pray for them, and Samuel said: "Far be it from me that I should cease to pray for you." Of how great piety was David, king of Israel! Saul was seeking to kill him, and David had Saul in his hand: he could have killed him, with God not prohibiting it, because God said to him: "I will deliver him into your hands." He could have killed him, with no man prohibiting it, nor the law prohibiting it; and yet he spared him and his house. These therefore are men of mercy, whose acts of piety did not fail.