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Lent IV Tuesday – Proverbs 12: 8-22
8 The mouth of an understanding man is praised by a man; but he that is dull of heart is had in derision. 9 Better is a man in dishonour serving himself, than one honouring himself and wanting bread. 10 A righteous man has pity for the lives of his cattle; but the bowels of the ungodly are unmerciful. 11 He that tills his own land shall be satisfied with bread; but they that pursue vanities are void of understanding. He that enjoys himself in banquets of wine, shall leave dishonour in his own strong holds. 12 The desires of the ungodly are evil; but the roots of the godly are firmly set. 13 For the sin of his lips a sinner falls into snare; but a righteous man escapes from them. He whose looks are gentle shall be pitied, but he that contends in the gates will afflict souls. 14 The soul of a man shall be filled with good from the fruits of his mouth; and the recompence of his lips shall be given to him. 15 The ways of fools are right in their own eyes; but a wise man hearkens to counsels. 16 A fool declares his wrath the same day; but a prudent man hides his own disgrace. 17 A righteous man declares the open truth; but an unjust witness is deceitful. 18 Some wound as they speak, like swords; but the tongues of the wise heal. 19 True lips establish testimony; but a hasty witness has an unjust tongue. 20 There is deceit in the heart of him that imagines evil; but they that love peace shall rejoice. 21 No injustice will please a just man; but the ungodly will be filled with mischief. 22 Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord; but he that deals faithfully is accepted with him.
Verse nine could cause some confusion if not explained. By “honor” the sacred author means the honor of rank that a traditional society assigns to a man who has slaves or paid servants under him to do the work that provides for his family’s material needs, while he is free to exercise the moral duties of an aristocracy, such as the priestly duties of conducting worship, governing the civil or ecclesiastical society, intellectual or artistic pursuits, or service as an officer in the military. In English, we called such a man a “gentleman,” which originally meant not someone with good manners but rather someone who was freed from the need to do manual labor by owning inalienable wealth, especially in the form of productive property worked by others. The problem that this proverb addresses occurs when a gentleman becomes so poor that he must do some kind of work beneath his inherited station in order to support himself, but he refuses to do so out of a false sense of honor. What the verse means is that there is no dishonor in honest work of any kind, and that it is better to support yourself by honest work, no matter how humble, than to pretend to be something that you are not. For us Americans, with our emphases on self-sufficiency and the work ethic, this is obvious, but it would not have been so to the original audience of the sacred author. (Now and then some of our quintessentially American ideas do coincide with divine revelation, though not as often as the delusion of American exceptionalism would lead us to believe.)
Verse ten reads, “A righteous man has pity for the lives of his cattle; but the bowels of the ungodly are unmerciful.” St. John Chrysostom has this to say:
…It is an exercise of human charity when someone, by means of his animals, becomes accustomed to show mercy upon his fellow human beings. Indeed he who has pity upon animals tends to have much more pity upon his brothers…Do the righteous have pity upon the souls of their animals? Absolutely. Certainly it is necessary to convey benevolence toward them, so that there may be a greater exercise of benevolence toward fellow human beings. Indeed with good reason God ordered that we carry hurt animals and take back those that stray, and not to muzzle the mouth of an ox. He absolutely wants us to preserve the health of animals: in the first place for our sake, second, in order that they may provide us with their menial service.
The divine wisdom here should be to us as obvious as it is beautiful. We ascend to the love of that which is higher by means of learning how to love that which is lower. It is well known that by caring for animals children begin to learn the self-denial, compassion, and discipline that will later enable them to love other people and, ultimately, to love God. At each step the lower and easier task prepares them for the higher and more difficult. Today, of course, we see a lot of delusional and absurd thinking about animals, which raises them to the level of personhood or even exalts them above human beings. But these recent and disordered obsessions do not invalidate the age-old truth that God made us the stewards of His creation and that caring properly for dumb beasts is essential to a man’s maintaining his station in the hierarchy of being, primarily that he may acquire virtue and secondarily because the animals provide for his material needs.
How wonderful are Thy works, O Lord, in wisdom hast Thou made them all! Give us compassion, O gracious Creator, and the prudence we need, to work hard, to steward Thy creation, and to love our brother according to Thy will and wisdom, and not our own. Amen.