Fall Is Here

Today’s first reading provides many proverbs.  Today also is the first day of fall or the autumnal equinox.  Day and night are each about 12 hours long. The sun crosses the celestial equator going southward; it rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west.  It’s a special time of the year made even more “special” by kids being back in school with concerns about the coronavirus still being front and center.  

This “Pearls Before Swine” comic strip makes an important point – one we tend to forget: pride comes before the fall.  This proverb (18-19) reads: “Pride goes before disaster, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be humble with the poor than to share plunder with the proud.”  

Pride is one of our seven deadly sins.  Pride is life centered on self.   No wonder it is  “deadly.”  For many of us sharing plunder with the proud is more tempting than being humble with the poor.  This attitude deadens us to Jesus’ teaching.  

Yes, it is the fall.  Now we must act to prevent our fall – our fall from grace and favor.  We must not throw our pearls before swine, meaning we must not follow those with evil intent and self-centered behavior.  

As the first proverb in today’s reading indicates: (1) “Haughty eyes and a proud heart–the tillage of the wicked is sin; (2) The plans of the diligent are sure of profit, but all rash haste leads certainly to poverty; (3) Whoever makes a fortune by a lying tongue is chasing a bubble over deadly snares; (4) The soul of the wicked man desires evil; his neighbor finds no pity in his eyes; (5) When the arrogant man is punished, the simple are the wiser; when the wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge; (6) The just man appraises the house of the wicked: there is one who brings down the wicked to ruin; and (7) He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will himself also call and not be heard.

These seven proverbs lead us away from the first of the seven deadly sins: life centered on self.

Deacon David Pierce