EMPTY-HANDED

INTRODUCTIONThe title of my homily for this 8th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Empty-Handed.”

We all know the feeling of being empty-handed. We arrive at the party and everyone has a gift – or some food – or an envelope and a card and we don’t. We emit an inner, “Uh oh. Oh no!” 

We’re empty-handed.

And deeper still we surely said at times in our lives to God and to ourselves, “Oh my God, I feel so empty-handed!”

Empty-handed is a hyphenated word that appears in today’s first reading from Sirach. Sirach says, “Appear not before the Lord empty-handed….” [Sirach 35:4]

A TINY BIT OF RESEARCHSince Sirach is not in the Jewish Bible – and since the Hebrew text for Sirach “had been lost for centuries” – as The New Jerusalem Biblical Commentary puts it, I was wondering what the Hebrew word or words for “empty-handed” might be.

I like to go back to the original – if I can.

We have Greek translations of Sirach; but what about a Hebrew text?

Well, The New Jerusalem Biblical Commentary says that 4 Hebrew manuscripts of Sirach dating to the 10th to the 12th centuries were recovered from the Geniza of the Qaraite Synagogue in Cairo between 1896 -1900. It adds that some further manuscripts and fragments have been discovered after that – including some fragments of Sirach at Qumran. It concludes: “About 68 percent of the Hebrew is now extant.” (1)

Reading that I thought, “Good. Let me see if I can find the Hebrew text for Sirach 35:4 – where the word “empty-handed” appears. We have the Greek – but what is the Hebrew?”

I found out that the Semitic – Hebrew – Aramaic – word spelled in our alphabet would be, “REQAM” or “RAY-KAWM”.

It would connote ideas like, “empty,” “vacant,” “empty-handed”.

With a tiny bit of further research I found out that it’s used in two different contexts in the Jewish Scriptures.

FIRST: DON’T COME TO WORSHIP WITH EMPTY HANDSThe first use is the command: don’t come to worship empty handed.

Tithe. Bring a gift for the Lord – when you come to worship.

That would have fit perfectly for last Sunday’s Archbishop’s Appeal.

Or should we think St. Mary’s Second Collection every Sunday for building and maintenance?

We find this idea not just here in Sirach – but also in Deuteronomy 16:16 – where it says we must not appear before Yahweh empty-handed. Deuteronomy says right there “The bigger the harvest the Lord gives you, the bigger your gift should be.” That’s kind of direct. And we hear that same message at the end of today’s reading from Sirach.

For us who come to worship during the week here is a question: what am I bringing to the Lord today?

The obvious answer can be found in the prayers of our Mass – where we hear that in this liturgy we are entering into Christ who gives himself to the Father. Christ is our gift!

SECOND: DON’T LEAVE EMPTY-HANDED

The second experience that we find in scripture for this word, “empty-handed” or “RAY-KAWM” is found in Exodus 3: 21 – when the Israelites were to leave from being slaves in Egypt – but not to leave empty-handed. So too when someone frees a Hebrew slave or bondsperson – male or female – one doesn’t just release or set this person free – but one gives them something so they can make a fresh start. In Deuteronomy 15:13-14 we read that freed slaves should be given some animals from one’s flock, some grain from one’s threshing floor, and some wine from one’s wine press.

Hopefully, this is a basic common human sentiment!

Don’t we hope that those released from prison leave with skills – and money to get started again. Haven’t we seen moms and dads giving their kids a few extra dollars when going to an event or game? Haven’t we seen grandparents slipping their grandkids some green when they are driving back to college.

We don’t want others to arrive at their destination empty-handed.

CONCLUSION

As I reflected on this theme of “empty-handed” - I said to myself: this is the Mass. We come here and hand ourselves over to the Lord as today’s Gospel tells us. Then we walk out from here at the end of Mass with bread and wine – the Lamb of God on our breath – and in our being - and we hopefully we hand these gifts – especially the gift of Christ to our world, today. Amen.


(1) Alexander A. Di Lella, O.F.M, “Sirach” page 497, in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, edited by Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 07632, 1990