Scripture Daily

Context No. 4265 of 4322 · Sirach

Context · Reflection

Sirach 24:17-34: in context

17Like the vine, I put forth grace. My flowers are the fruit of glory and riches. 19“Come to me, all you who desire me, and be filled with my fruits. 20For my memory is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance than the honeycomb. 21Those who eat me will be hungry for more. Those who drink me will be thirsty for more. 22He who obeys me will not be ashamed. Those who work with me will not sin.” 23All these things are the book of the covenant of the Most High God, the law which Moses commanded us for an inheritance for the assemblies of Jacob. 25It is he who makes wisdom abundant, as Pishon, and as Tigris in the days of first fruits. 26He makes understanding full as the Euphrates, and as the Jordan in the days of harvest, 27who makes instruction shine forth as the light, as Gihon in the days of vintage. 28The first man didn’t know her perfectly. In like manner, the last has not explored her. 29For her thoughts are filled from the sea, and her counsels from the great deep. 30I came out as a canal stream from a river, and as an irrigation ditch into a garden. 31I said, “I will water my garden, and will drench my garden bed.” Behold, my stream became a river, and my river became a sea. 32I will yet bring instruction to light as the morning, and will make these things clear from far away. 33I will continue to pour out teaching like prophecy, and leave it to all generations. 34See that I have not labored for myself only, but for all those who diligently seek wisdom.

Wisdom, personified in this passage, issues an invitation: come to me, all you who desire me, and eat your fill of my fruits. And she says something paradoxical about those who do: those who eat me will hunger for more, and those who drink me will thirst for more. Unlike ordinary food that satisfies and is done, feeding on wisdom satisfies and yet deepens the desire for more; it fills without ever cloying.

What stands out is this paradox of a satisfaction that increases hunger. The good things of the world, once we have them, tend to lose their savor; we tire of them. But the wisdom of God is different: the more we taste of it, the more we want; it satisfies deeply and yet awakens a deeper longing. It is inexhaustible, like rivers overflowing, never drained, always more to be had.

This invitation finds its fullness in Christ, whom Scripture calls the wisdom of God. To feed on God's wisdom, on his word, on Christ himself, is to find a satisfaction that never grows stale but always deepens the hunger for more. The world's pleasures satiate and then disappoint; but the more we know of God, the more we long to know. Come, wisdom says, and eat.

Do I feed on the wisdom of God, on his word and on Christ himself, finding there a satisfaction that never grows stale but deepens my hunger for more of God, rather than settling for the world's pleasures that satiate and then disappoint?

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