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Epiphany Season · Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time · Year A

Sirach 15:15-20

The Choice Set Before You: Fire and Water, Life and Death

February 15, 2026

Mankind’s Eternal Dilemma: The Choice between Virtue and Vice, Frans Francken the Younger
Mankind’s Eternal Dilemma: The Choice between Virtue and Vice, Frans Francken the Younger, 1633Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
A man stands at the centre of a crowded stage, drawn on one side toward the virtues and heaven and on the other toward feasting, vice and the open mouth of hell.If you choose, you can keep the commandments … He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose. Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given.Frans Francken the YoungerAn Antwerp painter of crowded small panels, from a long family of painters.Museum of Fine Arts, BostonMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston.Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Roman Lectionary
GospelMatt. 5:17-37Mt 5:17-37 orMatt. 5:20-22a, 27-28, 33-34a, 37Mt 5:20-22a, 27-28, 33-34a, 37
Second Reading1 Cor. 2:6-101 Cor 2:6-10
First ReadingSir. 15:15-20Sir 15:15-20
Responsorial PsalmPs. 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34 (1b)Ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34 (1b)

Overview & Insights

"Before man are life and death, and whichever he chooses shall be given him." (Sirach 15:17)

Ben Sira answers a complaint that God is somehow to blame for human sin by insisting God gave human beings real freedom to keep or break the commandments. The image of fire and water set before the chooser makes the same point Deuteronomy made with life and death: the choice, and its consequence, belong to the one who chooses.

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Take it further: Sirach 15:15-20

Commentary

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A Agape Bible Study

Catholic Bible study notes on human free will in Sirach, set beside the psalm and the Sermon on the Mount readings.

The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A Catholic Productions · Brant Pitre

Dr. Brant Pitre's Catholic exegesis of Sirach's teaching on the freedom to keep the commandments.

Sirach 15 - Haydock's Catholic Bible CommentarySir 15 - Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary StudyLight · Haydock

The Haydock Catholic commentary on the Douay text, one of the few verse by verse treatments of this deuterocanonical chapter.

Background & Word Study

Ecclesiasticus (Sirach)Ecclesiasticus (Sir) New Advent · Catholic Encyclopedia

The standard Catholic introduction to the book: how it was written, in what language, and how it came to stand where it does.

Sirach 15 (NABRE, with footnotes)Sir 15 (NABRE, with footnotes) USCCB

The text as the Church reads it, with the notes that set the passage in its own moment.

Ben Sira 15 in Hebrew Sefaria

The recovered Hebrew of Ben Sira, so the passage can be read in the language it was composed in.

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