Let not the greediness of the belly nor lust of the flesh take hold of me; and give not over me your servant into an impudent mind.
All Commentaries on Wisdom of Sirach 23:6 Go To Wisdom of Sirach 23
Quodvultdeus
AD 450
Forgetful of freedom and grace and desiring the Egyptian foods, the people were found guilty of murmuring against God and against Moses. They say, "Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish that we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the leeks, the garlic and the onions. Now, however," they add, "our life has dried up, and we see nothing before us but this manna." The sweet things are rejected, the bitter desired. A grave, debilitating illness leads the soul to want to take what is harmful and to despise and reject what is useful and good for salvation. Thus they refused the manna, that is, Christ, saying, "We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one comes from." Christ says in reproof, "If you believed Moses, you would also believe me, because it is of me that he wrote. Indeed, I am the living bread come down from heaven." Did they not reject the holy manna when they said to Pilate, who wanted to release Jesus, "Release not him but Barabbas"? Barabbas was a notorious thief, and by asking for his release they professed to have in a certain sense desired, from among the thief"s crimes, the leeks, the onions and the garlic, those unpleasant Egyptian foods that make one cry. To those who murmured, in fact, the divine majesty offered meats that did not restore but instead ruined those who ate them. It says in Scripture, "The natural person does not understand the things of the Spirit: every sluggard lives in concupiscence." It is right that the spiritual person asks that the desires of his flesh be taken from him. All these things show that it is wicked to desire and to ask of God things that are harmful to the soul, and especially to ask for them with murmuring. If a soul desires to enter the promised land, it must guard itself from offending God with such a desire.
