Ecclesiasticus 4:11-19 / Mark 9:38-40
Whenever someone tells us that something is tried and tested, we will certainly have more confidence in it.
More so, if we ourselves have tried and tested something and it is to our satisfaction, then we will be able to speak about it more confidently.
So it may be a gadget or a method or a product, if it has been tried and tested, and has proven effective and successful, it will also be able to command some confidence from others.
But if "tried and tested" is about persons, then these persons will certainly have the trust and confidence of others.
Yet to be tried and to be tested and to be trusted certainly comes with a price.
The 1st reading says that Wisdom brings up her own sons, and cares for those who seek her. Whoever obeys her judges aright and whoever pays attention to her dwells secure.
But Wisdom will also take a person at first through winding ways, bringing fear and faintness on him, plaguing him with her discipline until she can trust him, and testing him with her ordeals.
But in the end she will lead him back to the straight road and reveal her secrets to him.
That is what it means, and the price to pay, to be tried and tested and trusted. Yet the reward is the priceless wisdom to live life and to walk in the ways of God.
In the gospel, Jesus taught us a basic and yet fundamental wisdom of life: Anyone who is not against us is for us.
May we be for others a tried and tested and wise servant of God so that we can lead them to God and in the wisdom of His ways.