Day 289: Wise Influences

1 Maccabees 8:1-32 Seeking political independence as a way of guaranteeing religious freedom, Judas allied with Rome. The Romans would help Israel defeat Syria, but the treaty would leave them under the domination of Rome. Israel had previously been warned against forming treaties with pagan nations.


Sirach 22:1-27 An important part of seeking wisdom for decisions or the best course of action involves consulting those who have been proven wise. These verses encourage the cultivation and preservation of friendships. Elements that assist in good relationships are prudent speech and sound moral behavior. (CCC 1835)


Ch 22:8 Other ancient authorities add verses 9 & 10: “Children who are brought up in a good life, conceal the lowly birth of their parents. Children who are disdainfully and boorishly haughty stain the nobility of their kindred.”


Ch 23:1-6 The author reeks into prayer beginning with the last verse of the previous chapter. With an ardent desire to grow in wisdom, he prays for the Cardinal Virtues of prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance. These virtues bring about dominion over the passions and cultivate good will in dealing with others.


Ch 23:7-15 Cursing, swearing, and profanity can take many forms. Sometimes it is the use of the Lord’s name in vain or an oath or vow that is made flippantly, without sincere forethought. Each of these abuses of reference to God’s name constitutes offenses against the Second Commandment. Even without vain or blasphemous reference to God, impolite, vulgar, or obscene words could be sinful if they offend another person’s dignity. (CCC 2150-2155, 2521-2524, 2533)


Ch 23:16-27 Sins of impurity cloud the mind and weaken the will against temptation. Though many may believe the contrary, absolutely nothing is hidden from God. Habitual consent to inordinate passions brings sadness and emptiness in its wake, while virtuous fidelity to the Commandments brings lasting fulfillment and joy. (CCC 2380-2381, 2388-2391)

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)


  • Judas continued successful expeditions against Gentile forces in all directions—from Idumea in the south to Galilee in the north, and from Ammon and Gilead in the trans-Jordan to Philistine territory on the western coastal plains.

  • During this time, Antiochus IV died, and his death created a power vacuum that gave rise to several rival claimants to the Seleucid throne.

  • In an effort to stabilize the volatile political situation, the general Lysias, who had once led the Syrian armies against Judas, withdrew from Palestine and made peace with the Maccabean movement.

  • Under Judas’ leadership, the Jewish people entered into an alliance with another Gentile power that was beginning to make itself felt—Rome.

  • The Romans had risen steadily to power as the Seleucid kingdom destabilized, and Judas saw the association with Rome as a means of security for his people.

  • Judging from the precedents in Israelite history, however, this move, so reminiscent of the strategies of many Israelite kings of old, was an ominous one.

  • Long ago, when Israel had sought Assyrian help against Egypt, she ended up falling into the hands of Assyria.

  • Then when Judah courted the assistance of Babylon to secure herself against Assyria, she fell into captivity under Babylon.

  • Now, what would become of this new Jewish relationship with Rome?

  • While hinted at by these previous experiences, the consequences of Judas’ alliance with Rome would not be seen until later, when the Roman general Pompey invaded Jerusalem and captured it in 63 B.C.

  • Whenever God’s people placed their trust in political strength rather than in their true King, that same strength eventually enslaved them.

  • Not in vain did Isaiah liken earthly powers to the broken reed of a staff, “which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it” (Is 36:6).

(*Walking With God: A Journey Through The Bible by Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins)


  • So this is INCREDIBLE that you are STILL HERE on Day 289!!

  • Think back to whenever you began on Day 1

  • “Man (OH MAN! 😉), 365 days! Here we go!”

  • And here you are, 289 days later

  • Whether that was an actual 289 calendar days, or more than that

  • Or maybe you caught up and were doing multiple episodes a day

  • BUT HERE YOU ARE!!

  • MORE THAN HALFWAY THROUGH THE ENTIRE BIBLE!!

  • We are a LONG WAY through the Bible and here you are, still

  • Fr. Mike is proud of you!!

  • 1 Maccabees we have An Eulogy of the Romans

  • What is happening at this point?

  • The Greeks are being replaced by the Romans

  • We have seen this many times

  • Here come the Assyrians who are replaced by the Babylonians who are replaced by the Persians who are replaced by the Greeks who are replaced by the Romans

  • The Romans are destroying everything

  • There is almost this praise of the Romans and how good they are at conquering

  • BUT…

  • The Romans are faithful to those who make alliances with them

  • Here is this newly independent Jewish state, essentially, under Judas Maccabeus

  • He and his brothers have driven out the Greeks

  • Now they are making an alliance with Rome because they have this understanding that Rome is kind of at its-Fr. Mike doesn’t want to say “height”-but in some ways it is

  • They don’t have an emperor yet

  • They still have a senate that is guiding the community

  • 1 Maccabees 8:15-16 talks about the policy of Rome

  • They have 300-plus senators

  • One man each year takes the lead

  • He’s not a king

  • He is not someone who will rule as a monarch

  • BUT…

  • Here are the senators who elect one person for a term of one year

  • Basically, he doesn’t rule, but he is the point person who relinquishes his power at the end of a year

  • It’s kind of a remarkable situation

  • I don’t know if we’ve ever seen that in human history until the Romans

  • The Sacred Author acknowledges that this had some wisdom to it

  • What also had some wisdom was the alliance the Jewish people made with Rome

  • While they had Judas Maccabeus they were able to fight against those invading armies

  • AND YET…

  • That will not last forever

  • Now at the same time, this is so interesting…

  • Judas Maccabeus and his brothers have been praying to the Lord for help when it comes to battle

  • But have you noticed in 1 Maccabees it is not the same as when we read in Kings or Chronicles

  • There, it was very very clear that who was running the place, who was leading, was the SPIRITUAL SENSE

  • Those SPIRITUAL LEADERS

  • THOSE PROPHETS

  • We don’t have any prophets here

  • This was noted a couple of chapters ago when they go back into Jerusalem and they restored the Temple, they didn’t know what to do with the altar stones that were desecrated so they buried them for a prophet to come along who would know what to do with them

  • They don’t have someone currently speaking the Word of God or the Will of God into their lives

  • Yes, of course they have their TRADITION and they have their SCRIPTURE

  • BUT…

  • They are lacking that voice of say, Samuel

  • They are lacking that voice of Elijah

  • They are lacking that voice of Isaiah

  • We have spent so much time with the prophets that we know what they sound like and what they said

  • One of the things they said was, “Do not enter an alliance with Egypt. You might think that they are going to save you. But they are not going to save you. So don’t do this. Don’t enter an alliance with these other kingdoms because they are not going to save you. You need to TRUST IN THE LORD.”

  • It is fascinating that Judas Maccabeus and the others don’t have a prophet saying, “Don’t enter an alliance with Rome.”

  • They think it seems like a smart thing to do

  • Rome apparently treats allies well and doesn’t yet have an emperor who will be the monarch and be the dictator

  • They have, in some ways, a wise senate

  • It’s remarkable to note that while it SEEMS like a smart thing to enter an alliance with Rome

  • BUT…

  • What would a prophet say?

  • Would a prophet say, “Yes, go ahead and do that. This is momentary. This is the best next step.”?

  • OR…

  • Would a prophet say what the other prophets had said when it came to an alliance with Egypt?

  • Would they say, “Stay away. Do not do this. Do not enter into an alliance with a nation that you think will protect you. Because ultimately they will enslave you.”

  • As we know, that is what is going to happen even if it takes a little while

  • Now on to Sirach

  • OH MAN!! (MAN!!)

  • Sirach Ch 22 is On Wisdom, Folly, and Self-Control

  • What an INCREDIBLE GIFT it is to spend this time and say the VALUE OF WISDOM and the WORTHLESSNESS OF FOOLISHNESS

  • Not only being foolish oneself

  • But also spending time with someone we know is foolish

  • Sirach 22:11-12, “Weep for the dead, for he lacks the light; and weep for the fool, for he lacks intelligence...Mourning for the dead lasts seven days, but for a fool or an ungodly man it lasts all his life.”

  • The life of a fool is WORSE THAN DEATH

  • Sirach 22:13, “Do not talk much with a foolish man, and do not visit an unintelligent man; guard yourself from him to escape trouble…”

  • We can do that in our daily lives

  • We can say, “You know, I really want to surround myself with the best kind of people.”

  • Here’s 1001th time that Fr. Mike mentions this quote: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” (And here is Fr. Mike saying it on the internet for the first time that I can recall….Who Do You Spend Time With? 😉)

  • That’s a saying that basically sums up all we have heard about when it comes to spending time with fools or virtuous people

  • But not only that…

  • Go back and read Sirach 22:13 again

  • Ok, I might do that in my daily life

  • I might say, “No actually I really associate with people that I see are virtuous, people that I know to be wise.”

  • BUT…

  • What about our MEDIA?

  • We might have “friends” in tv shows (My personal favorite is Joey 😉)

  • This particular character, story, or group of friends on a tv show or movie that we continually go back to

  • If we were really to ask, “Are those people living lives of wisdom? Are they living lives of folly?”

  • We might realize that the characters we love and follow are living lives of FOOLISHNESS

  • So maybe we are allowing them to speak foolishness into our lives on a regular basis

  • It might not even be the CHARACTERS in a tv show

  • It could be the people who WRITE THE SHOW

  • We might say, “No, I don’t want to be friends with those people because we have different values.”

  • Not to say that they are not worth love, my time, or the Death of Jesus because HE declares that their worth is death in his life

  • BUT…

  • We invite either WISDOM or FOLLY into our lives on a daily basis when it comes to WHO WE LISTEN TO

  • EVEN IF WE DO NOT ACTUALLY KNOW THOSE INDIVIDUALS

  • We are inviting wisdom or we are inviting folly into our lives IN SOME WAY

  • It’s worth doing an EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE about this (What? What is this EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE Fr. Mike speaks of? 🤔 Did you really think I would not have you covered on this? Watch this video to learn how to do an Examination of Conscience A Guided Examination of Conscience with Fr. Mark Mary from Ascension Presents 😁)

  • Sirach 22:27, “O that a guard were set over my mouth, and a seal of prudence upon my lips, that it may keep me from falling, so that my tongue may not destroy me!”

  • Psalm 141:3, “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips!”

  • YEAH!!

  • How many times do we need to just guard what we say

  • Not only what we take in

  • We don’t want THAT to be folly or foolishness

  • BUT…

  • ALSO WHAT WE SAY!!

  • Sirach 23:2, “O that whips were set over my thoughts, and the discipline of wisdom over my mind! That they may not spare me in my errors, and that it may not pass by my sins; in order that my mistakes may not be multiplied, and my sins may not abound…”

  • GOSH!!

  • I WISH I WERE MORE DISCIPLINED!!

  • SO THAT I DON’T KEEP MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE OVER AND OVER AGAIN THAT MY FOLLIES MULTIPLY AND MY SINS OVERWHELM ME

  • BUT…

  • To be able to say, “Gosh, Lord, please discipline my mind. Let my mind think of beautiful things and my heart turn to good things. Let me choose wise things.”

  • SO SO GOOD!!

  • Last little note

  • There is the question, “Who sees me?”

  • This is in relation to Sirach 23:18, “A man who breaks his marriage vows says to himself, ‘Who sees me? Darkness surrounds me, and the walls hide me, and no one sees me. Why should I fear? The Most High will not take notice of my sins.’”

  • BUT THAT COULD BE ANY SIN

  • In this case, it is adultery

  • But how many of our sins are…

  • We think because they are PERSONAL SINS that they are PRIVATE

  • AND YET…

  • We realize that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PRIVATE SIN

  • They may be PERSONAL

  • We might be the ONLY ONES WHO KNOW ABOUT IT

  • BUT…

  • THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PRIVATE SIN

  • As Jesus said, “No word whispered in the dark will not be declared from the rooftops. Nothing hidden in the darkness will not be revealed in the light.” (Or as Johnny Cash sang, “As sure as God made black and white, what’s done in the dark will be brought to the light…”🎸😁)

  • Not only that…

  • But God himself is WITH US AT ALL TIMES

  • Which is a great CONSOLING TRUTH

  • BUT…

  • At the same time, it should be a CONVICTING TRUTH AS WELL

  • “Ok God, if you are with me at all times then let me walk in the light of your presence. Let me walk in the light of your truth. Let me walk in the light of your wisdom.”

  • AND YET…

  • So often, so many of us CHOOSE to walk in FOLLY

  • So we say, “God, please, spare me from my personal sins becoming public. But at the same time, Lord, keep me from sin in the first place. Keep me in your Will always.”

  • That’s going to be our prayer for TODAY

  • GOSH!!

  • WE ARE MADE TO WALK IN THE LIGHT AND WE ARE MADE FOR THE LIGHT!!

  • We ask, “God, what would your prophets say to the Jews making an alliance with Rome?”

  • “God, what would your prophets say to US when we invite foolishness into our lives when we just have this burning desire to say what is on our minds all the time instead of saying, ‘No Lord, keep a watch over the door of my mouth.’ When we have a desire to FORGET that you are PRESENT TO US in those times of temptation and those times where we are inclined to wander from you, Lord?”

  • SO PRAY TO THE LORD IN THOSE WAYS

  • PRAY FOR FR. MIKE

  • PRAY FOR EACH OTHER


Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you praise and thank you. Thank you for this day and for this reading today. My gosh, Lord God, we ask that you please guide us in all of our decisions so that we can do what is right, we know what is right, and we can do and accomplish your will in all things. We give you praise this day. Please, in the name of Jesus, receive our thanks. Receive our praise. And receive us as yours. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”