Sirach 6:33-37: in context

Sirach here gives a practical program for becoming wise, and what stands out is that every step is active. Wisdom, in Ben Sira's account, is not downloaded or handed over; it is pursued, deliberately and persistently, and he lays out exactly how. It starts with the ears. If you love to listen, he says, you will receive, and if you incline your ear, you will grow wise. The first requirement is simply wanting to hear more than wanting to speak, a love of listening. Most people love the opposite, and stay foolish.

Then he gets specific and even physical about the pursuit. Stand among the elders, he says, and attach yourself to whoever is wise. Be willing to listen to every godly conversation, and do not let a wise saying pass you by. And then the vivid instruction: if you find a person of understanding, go to him early, and let your foot wear out the steps of his doors. Wear out his doorstep. Go so often, so eagerly, to the wise person that you literally erode the threshold with your comings and goings. Wisdom is gotten by seeking out wise people and refusing to leave them alone, by persistent, humble presence at their door. And underneath the human pursuit he sets the deeper one: fix your mind on the Lord's commandments and meditate on them continually. Do all this, he promises, and God will strengthen your heart, and your desire for wisdom will be granted.

That is a bracing corrective, because we mostly hope to become wise by accident, absorbing it passively while doing nothing in particular to seek it. Ben Sira says wisdom goes to the one who loves to listen, who deliberately attaches himself to wise people, who wears out their doorstep, who steeps in God's word. Whose doorstep should I be wearing out that I have not even knocked on, and do I actually love to listen, or have I been expecting wisdom to arrive without any of the pursuit it requires?