“O God, Thou art my God; how eager my quest for Thee,
Psalm 62 [link]
body athirst and soul longing for Thee,
like some parched wilderness, where stream is none!
So in the holy place, I contemplate Thee,
ready for the revelation of Thy greatness, Thy glory.”
I wonder sometimes if we as a people actually seek out wisdom, or truth, if we are generally thirsting after it, as in our psalm above. Are we thirsting after God, like in a parched wilderness? The first reading this weekend is about wisdom, and has put into my mind that famous story of the Hebrew king Solomon, a distant ancestor of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In the story, the king is asked by God to name a blessing that God could give to him. And what could a man who is king – and has everything laid out for him by his father David – what more could he ask for? Solomon asked for the wisdom to act well as a king. According to the story, God replies with great joy by granting the king great wisdom, and wealth and fortune to go with it. A great story, and let us be encouraged by it. The Christian religion, as much as the Hebrew religion, is a pursuit of truth, a pursuit of wisdom, and as the psalm tells us this is a pursuit of God Himself.
“The bright beacon of Wisdom, that never burns dim, how readily seen by eyes that long for it, how open to their search! Nay, she is beforehand with these her suitors, ready to make herself known to them; no toilsome quest is his, that is up betimes to greet her; she is there, waiting at his doors. Why, to entertain the very thought of her is maturity of the mind; one night’s vigil, and all thy cares are over. She goes her rounds, to find men worthy of her favours; in the open street unveils that smiling face of hers, comes deliberately to meet them.”
Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, 6: 13-17 [link]
Christ declared once to His apostles that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life. Come to me all you who thirst, He cried out elsewhere, and you shall receive your fill. To the Samaritan woman He said, If you knew Who it was asking you for water, you would ask Him for living water, and you would never again be thirsty. So there is a water that we should be filled with, and that water can be nothing else but the Holy Spirit of God, among Whose several gifts to human souls is knowledge and wisdom. And that puts in my mind the day of that first Christian Pentecost, when a small band of people frightened and hiding in prayer in Jerusalem were suddenly filled with a startling fire and burst out into the streets to begin the long history of the Church. As the first reading says, Wisdom is searching for us too – quick to anticipate those who desire her, she makes herself known to them; she herself walks about looking for those who are worthy of her. If you seek after the Lord, you shouldn’t have to wait long before you are filled with His Spirit.
“The very first step towards wisdom is the desire for discipline, and how should a man care for discipline without loving it, or love it without heeding its laws, or heed its laws without winning immortality, or win immortality without drawing near to God?”
Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, 6: 18-20 [link]
This above is the immediate continuation of our first reading this weekend, and is sadly left out. I cannot think why, because it joins nicely with the gospel message, in which Christ adds another dimension to the thirsting after God, the waiting for Him, and this has everything to do with the Commandments, with discipline and laws, which are at the core of the Hebrew Bible.
“…the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, who went to bring the bridegroom and his bride home, taking their lamps with them. Five of these were foolish, and five were wise; the five foolish, when they took their lamps, did not provide themselves with oil, but those who were wise took oil in the vessels they carried, as well as the lamps…”
The Gospel of S. Matthew, 25: 1-4 [link]
Those who are seeking after God, searching for wisdom, should also have welcomed the wisdom that has already been given and profited from it. They are like the wise virgins of the parable, carefully keeping their lamps lit. This wisdom (and perhaps the oil for the lamps) is contained in Scripture, and in the Tradition of the Church, and has been distilled for us and applied to our present situation by the teaching authority of the Church in numerous catechisms. You and I know then that the wisdom of God is not always welcome, and there are many even of the Church who are looking for other wisdom, desperate to continue to live lives at odds with the Commandments and still somehow claim the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That seems more like the foolish virgins who left their spare oil (wisdom and discipline) behind and so let their lamps go out.
We must be careful, so careful – the traps are many, the temptations without bound, and Christ calls us to be vigilant and wakeful. And yet, He would that we not lose hope. For Wisdom is on the move, graciously showing herself to us we go, in every thought of ours coming to meet with us.
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 