Pope Emeritus Benedict has spoken about a "crisis of faith". One of the aspects of that crisis is the fact that many people think they can be spiritual without being religious, that there can even be religion without God. Several decades ago, a book on spirituality pointed out that faith, morality and spirituality are a unified whole. The writer used the three words "creed", "code" and "cult" to express his meaning. He demonstrated that if any one of the three is missing, the other two become defective.

Thus faith ("creed") without morality, without a concomitant "code" of moral conduct, a moral law, becomes an empty philosophy. Since faith, at least in our Christian sense necessarily implied faith in a living God, it must lead to "cult", that is to say, worship, liturgy and celebration. "Cult" in this sense is communal or communitarian, but our faith also affirms the importance of the individual person and the personal relationship with God. Hence the importance of spirituality.

Sirach saw all this clearly when, in the opening words of today's passage, he links keeping the law ("code") with worship ("oblation" and "peace offering").