Wisdom 7:22b-8:1
There is in Wisdom a spirit that is intelligent, holy,
unique, manifold, subtle,
mobile, clear, unpolluted,
distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen,
irresistible, beneficent, humane,
steadfast, sure, free from anxiety,
all-powerful, overseeing all,
and penetrating through all spirits
that are intelligent, pure, and altogether subtle.
For wisdom is more mobile than any motion;
because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.
For she is a breath of the power of God,
and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;
therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
For she is a reflection of eternal light,
a spotless mirror of the working of God,
and an image of his goodness.
Although she is but one, she can do all things,
and while remaining in herself, she renews all things;
in every generation she passes into holy souls
and makes them friends of God, and prophets;
for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom.
She is more beautiful than the sun,
and excels every constellation of the stars.
Compared with the light she is found to be superior,
for it is succeeded by the night,
but against wisdom evil does not prevail.
She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other,
and she orders all things well.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Praising Wisdom
In this passage from the Book of Wisdom we get a cavalcade of words and phrases extolling the ideal of wisdom. Wisdom is to be desired, cherished and pursued like a lover – for wisdom is “more beautiful than the sun and excels every constellation of the stars”.
Pretty words, but why the elaborate praising of wisdom?
The passage is getting at a reality deeper than words. To get at this reality, try this thought experiment. Read each descriptor in the passage and ask yourself, "Was Jesus like that?" The ideal of wisdom – which is both a human ideal and a divine reality – points us to the incarnational reality of Christ in the world; the penetrating goodness of Christ is the “breath of the power of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty”. So, how might the ideal of wisdom open us to Christ active in the world today, to the Wisdom of God who “renews all things”? Bring your thoughts on this to prayer, asking God to give you the Spirit, that is, the very Wisdom of God.
—Bill Lipscomb is a spiritual director with the Ignatian Spirituality Center and the Church of the Gesu in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Bill is a graduate of the Seminars in Ignatian Formation program of the Midwest Jesuits. Bill serves as a board member for the Ignatian Spirituality Project and as a spiritual reflector for the Ignatian Volunteer Corps.
Prayer
Father, in the Name of Jesus, give me the Spirit.
—St. Peter Faber, SJ
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