NOTES for Sir 15:16-17

Everything that concerns life and death is in our hands. This declaration of absolute human freedom in choice is unexpected for everyone who thinks that freedom is an illusion, that everything is relative, and that in reality good and evil are equivalent. The text surrounding this astonishing verse can overturn not only habitual ideas about the role played for us by the choice we make and about which we very often do not trouble ourselves to give an account; common ideas about what life is and what death is are also subject to reconsideration.

God offers us fire or water, and the choice depends only on us. There is no one on whom responsibility for oneself can be placed. Before God each person stands personally. Nothing freely chosen by us can serve as a stone that we throw at others or at God.

No good intentions, justifications, references to having turned aside "for God's sake" or "for the neighbor's sake," nothing can serve as justification when our heart condemns us. Before us are life or death. The choice is ours alone.

All which concerns life and death is in our hands. This declaration of man’s absolute freedom in his choice is unexpected for every person, who considers that freedom is an illusion, that everything is relative and that in reality evil and good are equivalent. The text surrounding this tremendous verse, can upset not only the common ideas that which role plays for us the choice we make and in which very often we don’t take effort to give report. Various representations of what is life and of what is death are subject to revision. God proposes to us fire or water, and the choice depends only on us. There is nobody, to whom we could confer the responsibility for ourselves. Everyone will appear before God personally. Nothing of what we chose freely, can serve as stone, of which we throw to others or to God. No good intentions, justifications, references on what we abandoned "for God " or "for the neighbor", nothing can serve as justification, when our heart condemns us. Before us is life or death. The choice is only for us.