Reading from the book of Ben Sira the Wise

The Lord is a judge
who shows himself impartial towards people.
    He does not discriminate against the poor,
He listens to the prayer of the oppressed.
    He does not despise the supplication of the orphan,
nor the repeated complaint of the widow.
    He whose service is pleasing to God will be well received,
his supplication will reach heaven.
    The prayer of the poor pierces the clouds;
until she has achieved her goal, he remains inconsolable.
He perseveres until the Most High looks upon him,
    nor pronounced sentence in favor of the righteous and rendered justice.

    – Word of the Lord.

When the prayer of the humble breaks the silence of heaven

The voice of the forgotten reaches the throne of God: discover how spiritual poverty opens a privileged path to the heart of the Most High and transforms our relationship with divine justice.

In a world where success and strength seem to reign supreme, the book of Ben Sira reveals a radical reversal: it is the prayer of the poor, the weak, the oppressed that pierces the clouds and reaches directly to the heart of God. This passage from Sirach (Sir 35:15b-17, 20-22a) proclaims a shattering truth for all time: God is not indifferent to the human condition; he is an impartial judge who preferentially listens to those whom the world ignores. This ancient word, written in the 2nd century BC, resonates with prophetic force in our contemporary society and invites us to rediscover the transformative power of the prayer of the humble.

This article will guide you through five essential movements: first, we will situate this text in its historical and spiritual context; second, we will analyze the divine paradox of impartiality that favors the poor; then we will explore three fundamental dimensions—divine justice, perseverance in prayer, and solidarity with the oppressed; then we will establish links with the great Christian tradition; and finally, we will propose concrete ways to embody this message in our daily lives.

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Context

The Book of Sirach, also known as Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, holds a special place in biblical history. Written in Hebrew around 180 BC by Yeshua Ben Sirach, a sage from Jerusalem, this work of wisdom was composed at a pivotal moment in Jewish history. The author lived in a period of intense tension when Hellenistic culture, fueled by the conquests of Alexander the Great, threatened to dissolve the religious identity of the Jewish people. Faced with this wave of cultural assimilation, Sirach set out to reaffirm the strength and relevance of Jewish tradition, showing that the wisdom of Israel had nothing to envy from Greek philosophies.

This historical context explains the book's particular tone: Ben Sira seeks to convey a wisdom rooted in the Law and the Prophets, while engaging in dialogue with the challenges of his time. The sage likely taught at a school in Jerusalem, training young men in the virtues needed to navigate a complex world. His grandson later translated the work into Greek around 132 BCE, allowing its dissemination throughout the Mediterranean world and its inclusion in the Septuagint, the Greek Bible of the early Christians.

Our specific passage, located in chapter 35, falls within a section of the book devoted to authentic religious practice. Ben Sira has just discussed the value of sacrifices and worship, arguing that observing the Law is worth more than many ritual offerings. It is in this context that he introduces a fundamental teaching on the nature of God and his relationship with the poor, the oppressed, orphans, and widows—those categories of people who, in the ancient world, found themselves without legal or social protection.

The liturgical text we are studying has a carefully crafted structure: it begins with the affirmation of divine impartiality, continues with the enumeration of those to whom God particularly listens (the poor, the oppressed, the orphan, the widow), then culminates with the powerful image of prayer pierced through the clouds, and ends with the assurance of rewarded perseverance. This progression reveals a profound theology of prayer and divine justice, in which apparent human weakness paradoxically becomes the privileged path to the heart of God.

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The Divine Paradox Revealed

At the heart of our text lies a fascinating paradox that destabilizes our usual conceptions of justice: God is presented as a judge “who shows himself impartial toward people,” and yet, immediately afterward, the text affirms that “he does not discriminate against the poor” and that “he listens to the prayer of the oppressed.” How can we reconcile this divine impartiality with what appears to be a marked preference for the poor?

This apparent paradox actually reveals a profound understanding of true justice. God's impartiality does not mean that he treats all human beings identically, regardless of their circumstances; rather, it means that he is unaffected by the criteria of power, wealth, or social status that dominate human judgments. In ancient societies, as in our own, human courts often favor, consciously or not, the powerful, the wealthy, those with connections and the means to defend themselves. God, on the other hand, reverses this perverse logic: his impartiality consists precisely in not reproducing the structural injustices that characterize our societies.

By asserting that God “does not discriminate against the poor,” Ben Sira draws an implicit but powerful contrast with the judicial practices of his time. The poor, orphans, and widows were systematically disadvantaged in human courts: they lacked the means to bribe judges, the connections to assert their rights, and often even the knowledge of legal procedures. In the face of this structural injustice, God presents himself as the judge who restores balance, who gives a voice to those who are silenced, who lends a ear to those who are never listened to.

This paradox of preferential impartiality finds its ultimate explanation in the very nature of God as creator and father of all. Precisely because he is the father of all, God is more concerned about the child in danger, the wounded child, the forgotten child. This “preferential option for the poor,” to use the expression of modern theology, is not an exclusion of the rich but a correction of the exclusion that the poor already suffer in the social order. It manifests the divine will to restore a fundamental equality trampled upon by human structures of oppression.

Ben Sira develops this vision by multiplying the categories of people to whom God particularly listens: the oppressed, the orphan, the widow. These three figures represent the archetypes of social vulnerability in the Bible. The oppressed suffer the injustice of a system that crushes them; the orphan has lost the natural protector, the father, in a patriarchal society; the widow has lost her social and legal status with the death of her husband. All three share a common characteristic: their powerlessness in the face of established structures, their inability to assert their rights through conventional means. It is precisely this powerlessness that opens a direct path to God.

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Divine justice in action

The first fundamental dimension of our text concerns the very nature of God's justice, which is radically opposed to the corrupt forms of justice we know in human societies. When Ben Sira proclaims that "the Lord is a judge who shows impartiality to persons," he is not simply making an abstract theological statement; he is announcing a revolution in our understanding of what true justice is.

In the ancient world, as in many contemporary societies, justice was—and remains—for sale. Judges accepted bribes, favored their friends and relatives, and rendered verdicts based on the social status of the parties rather than the truth of the facts. This corruption of the judicial system was one of the most consistent complaints of the Hebrew prophets, from Amos to Isaiah, from Micah to Jeremiah. They tirelessly denounced judges who “sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals.”

In the face of this widespread perversion, Ben Sira's declaration resounds like a thunder of hope. There is a tribunal where the die is cast in advance, where the scales do not tip in favor of the highest bidder, where the voice of the weak counts as much—or even more—than that of the powerful. This tribunal is the very heart of God, accessible through prayer. This statement had—and retains today—a profoundly subversive significance. It signifies that the established social order, with its hierarchies and privileges, does not reflect the divine order; it signifies that the last on earth can be the first in God's judgment.

This vision of divine justice as a fundamental rebalancing finds a particular echo in the concrete experience of prayer. When an oppressed person prays, they perform an act of spiritual resistance against the injustice that overwhelms them. They affirm that beyond appearances, beyond the social structures that keep them powerless, there is a higher authority that sees, that hears, that cares. This affirmation is not an escape to the beyond, a passive resignation in the face of injustice; on the contrary, it is the source of a hope that allows us to continue to resist, to demand, to persevere despite adversity.

Ben Sira particularly emphasizes that God "does not despise the supplication of the orphan, nor the repeated complaint of the widow." The verb "despise" is crucial here: it describes the habitual attitude of the powerful toward the complaints of the weak, this way of brushing aside their supplications, of treating them as negligible quantities. God, however, does not despise. He takes seriously what men deem insignificant; he listens attentively to what human courts dismiss without examination. This divine attention to the least reveals a hierarchy of values ​​radically different from that which governs our societies.

Divine justice also involves an essential temporal dimension: it will be exercised. The text affirms that God "will pronounce sentence in favor of the righteous and will render justice." This promise of future justice is not an opium intended to lull the oppressed into lulling their misfortune; it is an assurance that nourishes perseverance and resistance. Knowing that the current situation is not definitive, that the last word does not belong to the oppressors, that today's tears will be wiped away tomorrow, gives us the strength to stand firm in times of trial. This eschatological hope constitutes one of the pillars of biblical and Christian faith..

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Perseverance in prayer

The second central dimension of our text concerns the very nature of the prayer of the poor and its essential characteristic: perseverance. The image Ben Sira uses is remarkably poetic: "The prayer of the poor crosses the clouds; until it has reached its goal, he remains inconsolable." This metaphor of crossing clouds reveals several fundamental aspects of the spiritual experience of the oppressed.

Clouds, in the biblical imagination, often represent the barrier between the earthly and heavenly worlds, between the human and the divine. They evoke both the closeness and the distance of God: close because clouds are part of our daily experience of heaven, distant because they veil what lies beyond. By stating that the prayer of the poor “pierces the clouds,” Ben Sira proclaims that this prayer has a special power to bridge the distance between earth and heaven, to pierce the veil that hides the face of God. This is an extraordinary statement: the stammering prayer of the poor, perhaps lacking eloquence and sophisticated formulas, reaches directly to the throne of God more surely than the elaborate prayers of the powerful.

But the text does not stop at this first image. It adds a crucial clarification: "as long as it has not achieved its goal, he remains inconsolable." This sentence reveals the existential dimension of the prayer of the poor: it is born of a real, urgent, vital need. It is not a prayer of comfort or routine, it is a cry wrung out by distress, a supplication that engages the whole being. The "inconsolability" of the poor is not a weakness but a strength: it manifests the authenticity of his prayer, the impossibility of being satisfied with superficial answers or artificial consolations. This prayer can only be appeased by a true response, a true intervention, a true justice.

Perseverance is at the heart of this spirituality of the prayer of the poor. Ben Sira insists: "He perseveres until the Most High has looked upon him, pronounced sentence in favor of the righteous, and rendered justice." This perseverance is not stubbornness or obstinacy; it is fidelity to a hope against all odds. It is the refusal to resign oneself to evil, to accommodate oneself to injustice, to accept as definitive a situation that denies human dignity. This perseverance in prayer thus becomes an act of spiritual resistance, a stubborn affirmation that things can and must change.

The early Church, faced with persecution and hardship, meditated deeply on this teaching of Ben Sirah. It found in it a model of prayer for difficult times: a prayer that does not give up, that continues to knock on heaven's door even when it seems closed, that refuses to be silent even in God's apparent silence. This spirituality of perseverance is rooted in the conviction that God always answers in the end, that his justice always ends up being accomplished, even if its delays exceed our comprehension.France-Catholic+4​

Perseverance in prayer also reveals a profound dimension of the relationship with God: it manifests trust. To persevere in prayer despite the apparent absence of a response is to affirm that God exists, that he listens, that he cares, that he will act in his own time. It is an act of faith that transcends the immediate experience of silence or absence. In this perspective, perseverance itself becomes a form of response: by continuing to pray, the poor already receive something from God, an inner strength that allows them not to sink into despair, a hope that keeps them standing despite adversity.

Ben Sira also establishes a link between the quality of prayer and the quality of service rendered to God: "He whose service is pleasing to God will be well received, his supplication will reach even to heaven." This verse suggests that authentic prayer is part of a larger whole of fidelity to God. It is not a magical technique for obtaining favors, but the expression of a living relationship, nourished by the observance of the Law, the practice of justice, and concern for others. The prayer that "reaches heaven" is that which rises from a life consistent with divine requirements.

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Solidarity with the oppressed

The third essential dimension of our text concerns the implicit call to solidarity with those to whom God prefers to listen. If God sides with the poor, orphans, widows, and the oppressed, then those who want to walk with God must do the same. This logic runs throughout the Bible and constitutes one of the fundamental criteria for the authenticity of faith.

Ben Sira's text confronts us with a disturbing question: on which side are we? Are we among those whose prayers have difficulty crossing the clouds because they arise from a life marked by indifference to the suffering of others? Or do we agree to identify with the poor, to make their causes our own, to join their prayers? These questions are not rhetorical; they engage our entire Christian existence.

The Catholic tradition has developed this intuition under the name of the “preferential option for the poor.” This expression, popularized by Latin American theology and adopted by the Church’s magisterium, affirms that Christians must make their own the priorities of God himself. As Pope Benedict XVI emphasized, “the preferential option for the poor is implicit in the Christological faith in that God who became poor for us, in order to enrich us with his poverty.” This option is not just another ideological or political choice; it flows directly from the very nature of God revealed in Scripture and incarnate in Jesus Christ.

This solidarity with the oppressed must be translated concretely into our lives. It first involves a conversion of outlook: learning to see the poor not as objects of pity or condescending charity, but as privileged subjects of divine revelation, as those through whom God speaks to us and challenges us. This conversion of outlook radically transforms our social relationships and our commitments. It pushes us to truly listen to the poor, to learn from them, to recognize in them a wisdom and dignity that our societies systematically deny.

Solidarity with the oppressed then implies a commitment to social justice. We cannot claim that God preferentially listens to the poor and remain indifferent to the social, economic, and political structures that create and maintain poverty. The prayer of the poor that pierces the clouds calls us to work so that this prayer finds an answer not only in the afterlife but also in the here and now, in concrete transformations that reduce injustice and restore dignity. This is where the contemplative dimension of prayer meets the active dimension of commitment to justice.

This solidarity also has an important liturgical and communal dimension. When the Church gathers for prayer, it must be the place where the voice of the poor can be expressed, where their concerns become our concerns, where their prayer becomes our prayer. Too often, our liturgies reflect the concerns of the middle and upper classes, obscuring the cries of the marginalized. A Church faithful to Ben Sira's message would be a Church where the prayer of the poor is central, where the least have the first word.

Finally, solidarity with the oppressed implies a certain form of spiritual poverty for all Christians. Even those who are not materially poor are called to cultivate this interior attitude of the poor who recognize their total dependence on God, who do not place their trust in riches or power, who keep their heart free and available. This is what Jesus will call the "poor in spirit" in the Beatitudes, this interior disposition that allows prayer to pierce the clouds regardless of our social condition.

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Tradition

Our passage from Ben Sira has profoundly influenced the spiritual and theological tradition of Christianity, even though the book of Sirach occupies a special status in the biblical canon. The Fathers of the Church, although aware of the debates over the canonicity of this book, quoted and meditated on it extensively, recognizing its profound spiritual wisdom.

Saint Cyprian of Carthage, in the 3rd century, regularly cited Sirach in his writings, considering him a source of authentic teaching on the Christian life. This practice was common among the Latin Fathers, who distinguished between the “canon of faith” (books whose authority was universally recognized) and the “canon of ecclesiastical reading” (books useful for spiritual instruction). Sirach clearly belonged to the latter category, and his teaching on the prayer of the poor resonated particularly in Christian communities facing persecution and injustice.

Rabanus Maurus, Bishop of Mainz in the 9th century, composed the first systematic Christian commentary on the book of Sirach. In his edifying approach, he emphasized how the teachings of Sirach prefigured and prepared the way for the Gospel revelation. For him, the theme of the prayer of the poor found its fulfillment in Jesus' teaching on the Beatitudes and in his own identification with the poor and marginalized.

The medieval spiritual tradition developed a rich theology of the prayer of the poor. The mendicant orders, Franciscan and Dominican in particular, made evangelical poverty the heart of their charism. Saint Francis of Assisi, espousing Lady Poverty, intuitively rediscovered Ben Sira's teaching: it is in voluntary self-denial, in identification with the least of these, that prayer acquires its greatest power to pierce the clouds and reach the heart of God.

The spirituality of the Rosary, this "prayer of the poor" par excellence, also extends the tradition of Sirach. Simple, repetitive, accessible to all without the need for theological erudition, the Rosary allows the humble to unite with Mary in her meditation on the mysteries of salvation. This popular prayer, so beloved by ordinary people, the sick, and those who lack scholarly words, bears witness to the truth that Ben Sirach already proclaimed: God listens to simple prayers that arise from a sincere heart more readily than to sophisticated theological discourses.

The Catholic liturgical tradition has incorporated our passage into the Sunday lectionary, regularly offering it for the faithful to meditate on. This liturgical presence ensures that Ben Sira's teaching continues to nourish the Christian conscience, reminding the Church that she must keep her eyes fixed on the poor if she is to remain faithful to her Lord.

More recently, the papal magisterium has explicitly highlighted this text. Pope Francis, in his message for the 8th World Day of the Poor in 2024, placed at the center a verse similar to ours: "The prayer of the poor rises up to God." In this message, the Pope deploys all the ecclesiological and spiritual implications of Ben Sira's teaching, insisting that "the poor occupy a privileged place in the heart of God." He even goes so far as to quote a verse that does not appear in our extract but which powerfully illuminates its meaning: "Do not the tears of the widow roll down the cheeks of God?" (Sir 35:18). This moving image reveals the extent to which God identifies with the suffering of the poor, to the point of being himself affected by it in his most intimate being.

This insistence of Pope Francis is in line with the entire social teaching of the Church developed since the 19th century. The "preferential option for the poor," formalized by the Latin American bishops and adopted by the universal Church, finds one of its deepest biblical roots in our text from Sirach. It affirms that the Church can be faithful to the Gospel only by resolutely siding with the poor and the oppressed, not out of philanthropy or ideology, but out of fidelity to the God who preferentially listens to their prayer.

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Meditation

How can we translate the transformative power of this biblical message into our daily lives? Here are some concrete ideas for embodying Ben Sira's teaching on the prayer of the poor.

Step One: Cultivate Inner PovertyBegin each time of prayer with an act of humility, acknowledging before God your fundamental poverty, your total dependence on Him. Whatever your material resources, enter into the inner disposition of the poor who have nothing to offer except their open heart and their need. This spiritual attitude allows your prayer to pierce the clouds.

Step Two: Practice Perseverance in IntercessionIdentify a situation of injustice that particularly affects you—local, national, or international. Commit to praying for this cause daily, with the tenacity of the poor who “persevere until the Most High looks upon them.” Keep this intention present in your prayer even when no visible change seems to be occurring.

Step Three: Really Listen to the Poor. Look for concrete opportunities to meet people experiencing poverty or exclusion. But don't just stop at acts of charity; commit to truly listening to their stories, their concerns, their worldview. Let their words transform your prayer and your priorities.

Step Four: Simplify Your Prayer. Like the prayer of the poor, devoid of sophisticated eloquence but full of authenticity, simplify your prayer formulas. Favor simple words, cries from the heart, and inhabited silences, rather than long theological compositions. Rediscover the power of traditional prayers, accessible to all, such as the Our Father or the Hail Mary.f​

Step Five: Commit Your Life to JusticeThe prayer of the poor cannot remain isolated from a concrete commitment to justice. Identify a concrete action—volunteering in an association, supporting a cause, changing your consumption patterns—that reflects your solidarity with the oppressed. Make an explicit connection between this action and your prayer.

Step Six: Meditate on Divine Impartiality. Regularly examine your own biases and favoritisms. Who are you favoring in your relationships, your attention, your generosity? Ask God to transform your outlook so that it is more like His, which “does not discriminate against the poor.”

Step Seven: Create Spaces for Inclusive PrayerIf you have responsibilities in your church community, work to ensure that the liturgy and prayer times truly reflect the concerns of the poor. Invite people from diverse backgrounds to speak, to formulate prayer intentions, to share their spiritual experiences. Make your community a place where the voices of the marginalized can truly be heard.

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A spiritual and social revolution

Our meditation on the passage from Ben Sira leads us to a radical realization: prayer is not a pious activity that would cut us off from social realities; on the contrary, it is the place from which springs a transformative force capable of upsetting the established order. When God affirms that he preferentially listens to the prayer of the poor, he proclaims a revolution that concerns both heaven and earth.

This revolution begins in our hearts. It calls us to identify with the poor, to make their causes our own, to join their prayer that reaches through the clouds. But it cannot stop there: it must unfold in our life choices, our social commitments, our struggles for justice. The prayer of the poor that rises to God must descend to the earth in the form of concrete actions that transform the structures of oppression.

Ben Sira's message resonates with particular urgency in our contemporary world, marked by growing inequalities. Faced with widespread indifference to the suffering of the most vulnerable, faced with economic systems that crush the weak, and faced with perpetuated structural injustices, the affirmation that God listens to the prayers of the poor constitutes a word of resistance and hope. It assures us that the current situation is not definitive, that God's justice will eventually be accomplished.

But this assurance does not exempt us from action; on the contrary, it compels us to do so. Knowing that God sides with the oppressed compels us to do the same, to become instruments of his justice ourselves, concrete answers to the prayers of the poor who rise up to him. We are called to be the hands with which God wipes away tears, the voice with which he pronounces his sentence in favor of the righteous, the force by which he brings justice to the oppressed.

This vocation requires a profound conversion. It asks us to renounce the unjust privileges we may enjoy, to question our lifestyles that contribute to the exploitation of the weakest, to move away from our comfortable concerns and allow ourselves to be challenged by the cries of the poor. It is a demanding path, but it is the only one that allows us to truly walk with the God revealed in Scripture.

The image of prayer that pierces the clouds ultimately invites us to hope. In moments when all seems lost, when injustice seems to triumph definitively, when our prayers seem to be lost in silence, Ben Sira assures us that authentic prayer, the kind born of a heart broken by injustice, always ends up achieving its goal. It pierces the clouds, crosses distances, touches the heart of God and triggers his response. This assurance is not naivety; it is faith in a God who “will not delay” and who “will remain impatient” until justice is fully accomplished.

May we ourselves become persevering intercessors, voices that join the great symphony of prayers of the poor rising to God through the ages. May we also become instruments of the divine response, hands and feet that translate into human history God's justice and compassion for the least of them. This is our vocation as Christians, heirs to the tradition of Ben Sira and disciples of Christ who became poor to enrich us with his poverty.

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Practical

Examine your eyes daily on the people in poverty that you meet, asking God to transform your prejudices into recognition of their dignity and their special closeness to him.

Spend five minutes every day to a persevering prayer of intercession for a specific situation of injustice, inspired by the tenacity of the poor who pray until God does justice.

Read and meditate on a Bible passage each week on social justice and the option for the poor (prophets, gospels, epistles), letting the Word question your life choices and priorities.

Commit to at least one concrete action per month of solidarity with the vulnerable people in your community, making this commitment a natural extension of your prayer.

Practice voluntary simplicity in one area of ​​your life (food, clothing, leisure) to cultivate this inner poverty which allows prayer to cross the clouds.

Actively seek the meeting with people from different social backgrounds, creating spaces for dialogue and mutual listening that enrich your understanding of reality and nourish your prayer.

Incorporate into your personal and community prayer specific intentions for orphans, widows, the oppressed of our time, explicitly naming situations of injustice that require divine intervention.

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References

Book of Ben Sira the Wise, chapter 35, verses 15b-17.20-22a, French liturgical translation, source text and context of composition in the 2nd century BC in Jerusalem.

Pope Francis, Message for the 8th World Day of the Poor (2024), “The prayer of the poor rises up to God,” a contemporary magisterial meditation on the theme of Ben Sira.

Patristic tradition, notably Saint Cyprian of Carthage (3rd century) and Rabanus Maurus (9th century), the first Christian commentators on Sirach from the perspective of spiritual edification.

Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, teaching on the preferential option for the poor developed since the 19th century and formalized by the Latin American and universal magisterium.

Benedict XVI, reflections on the Christological foundation of the option for the poor and its rooting in faith in a God who made himself poor in Christ.

Charles Mopsik (translator), The Wisdom of Ben Sira, complete translation of the Hebrew fragments with historical and philological introduction, presenting the oriental and Mediterranean context of the wisdom books.

Pancratius C. Beentjes (editor), publication of the Hebrew manuscripts of Sirach (1997) and photographic resources available on bensira.org for the scientific study of the original text.scroll.bibletraditions+1​

Catholic liturgy, integration of the passage from Ben Sira into the Sunday lectionary of Ordinary Time, ensuring its regular meditation by Christian communities.