Sirach 24:17-34: a reflection

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.

In this passage, divine Wisdom speaks and issues a gracious invitation: Come to me, all you who desire me, and be filled with my fruits. Wisdom describes herself as sweeter than honey, a source of nourishment and delight. And she says something intriguing: those who eat me will hunger for more, and those who drink me will thirst for more. To feed on God's wisdom is not to reach a point of satiation and stop, but to develop an ever-deepening appetite for more.

Sirach identifies this wisdom with God's own revelation, the law given for an inheritance, an overflowing river of instruction that floods the mind like the great rivers at flood stage. And the one sharing this wisdom says he labors not for himself alone but for all who seek it, pouring out teaching like prophecy for every generation. Wisdom is presented as an abundant, life-giving river, freely offered to all who come, and given not to be hoarded but to be shared.

There is a beautiful invitation here that finds its fullness in Christ, who also said, come to me. To feed on God's wisdom, his word, his truth, is deeply satisfying, and yet it creates a holy hunger for more; the more you know of God, the more you want to know. Do not treat time with God's word as a box to check and be done. Come to it hungry, feed on it, and let it deepen your appetite for God himself. And, like the one who shares this wisdom, do not hoard what you receive; pass it on to others who seek it.

Lord, your wisdom invites me to come and be filled, and yet those who feed on it hunger for more. Give me that holy appetite, so that the more I know of you, the more I long to know. Keep me from treating your word as a box to check; let me come to it hungry and be satisfied, even as my desire for you deepens. And help me to share what I receive with others who seek you. Amen.