Sirach 7
Miscellaneous Advice
If you do no wrong, no wrong will ever come to you. Do not plow the ground to plant seeds of injustice; you may reap a bigger harvest than you expect.
Don't ask the Lord for a place of honor or ask the king for an important position. Don't try to convince the Lord that you are righteous or make a show of your wisdom before the king. Don't set your heart on being a judge, unless you have the strength of character it takes to put an end to injustice. If you let yourself be influenced by someone in a position of power, your integrity will be damaged. Don't commit any crime against the general public, and don't disgrace yourself among your townspeople.
Don't commit the same sin twice. The punishment you get the first time ought to be enough.
Don't think that God Most High is going to take into account how very generous you are and so accept any offering you decide to make.
Never get tired of praying, and never miss a chance to give to the poor.
Don't laugh at someone who has been humiliated. It is the Lord who humbles a person, but the Lord also raises him up again.
Don't think up lies to tell about your friends. Don't tell lies at all. It never does any good.
In an official assembly, don't get up and talk a lot of nonsense. And don't repeat yourself when you pray.
Don't try to avoid farm work or other hard labor; the Most High has given us these jobs to do.
Don't join up with a crowd of sinners; remember that the Lord's punishment is sure to come.
Be very humble, because the decay of death awaits us all.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire
Injustice is what I want to touch upon. A common cause of injustice is human selfishness. Human injustice is not always caused by attempt to gain unfair advantage or malice; it may be simply the result of the flawed human decision making.
I have someone very close to my heart, my twin soul I call her. But we are at times north and south pole. I am much stronger and she is more like a weak toddler. She is an introvert and I am part extrovert. I can call myself a Tomboy because I grew up with boys, but overprotection by parents and my absence, made her shy and timid. We balance. Common ground we share is our sensitive nature and no malice. We both go into a shell quickly but it's quite difficult to pull her up from the deep pit she buries herself into whereas I bounce back in no time.
Quite briefly, In her mid 20s after her post graduation, she started working in the IT Cell tutoring students in a reputed College. A few of the so highly educated lecturers and the staff, pulled a prank on her. She was made to believe that one of the lecturers had fallen in love with her, and simple minded that she was, she believed. The moment she confessed it to one of her colleagues, rumours spread like wildfire in the whole college. When she realised that the entire staff had made a laughing stock out of her, she had a nervous breakdown with hallucinations. I wasn't around to help her when she needed me for I was out of the country. Doctors consulted diagnosed her condition as schizophrenia and the stigma attached to it made matters worse. The real injustice was the College authorities aware of the entire incident blamed her for her foolishness and closed the whole issue, unfairly without punishing any of the culprits and justified their actions. The undeserved outcome was that she left her job as she lost all appetite for career and her life too. She is better but damaged still as sometimes in a good shape and sometimes unreasonably stubborn. Prayer helps her. She is in her 40s now and I was extremely joyful to have her with me today after a long lapse due to Covid around. When she spoke of aliens and demons around and we need to pray, it broke my heart. But holding and hugging her close to my tormented heart tightly saying that I love her, comforted us both. She knows I love and care for her. I pray God forgives these people.
Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.
William Shakespeare
Good night friends 😇
