O Wisdom: Meditation for December 17

"O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way to salvation." - Magnificat Antiphon for December 17

In the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, based off of the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, there is an important distinction made in the order of knowledge. There are things which are, "more knowable in themselves," meaning there is more to be known about them, and then there are things, "more knowable to us." Obviously the greatest thing to be known is God, for no created intelligence can ever fully comprehend Him, for there is always something more to know. Nevertheless, God is not the most knowable thing to us. Rather, to come to knowledge of Him through human reason is very difficult, albeit possible. For this reason He has deigned it providential to reveal Himself to us, so that all may come to know the great Mystery of the Triune God.

However, let us quickly hearken back to the distinction just made between things knowable in themselves and things more knowable to us. A similar distinction exists in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There is the greatest of all gifts, which is the gift of wisdom, yet there is the gift which is most necessary for us, as the foundation for all the other gifts and that is the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7)

It is somewhat interesting then, that as we begin the yearly recitation of the "O Antiphons" at Mass, Evening Prayer, and the Christmas Novena, we start with acknowledging Christ as, "Wisdom." But this makes the most sense, because not only is wisdom the greatest gift bestowed on us, but it is the greatest gift of God the Father for us, since the Son is referred to in the Scriptures and in the interpretation of the Church Fathers and St. Thomas Aquinas as the Wisdom of the Father. Wisdom, then, in different senses, is the greatest gift of the Triune God.

The Father gives His Son to us for our salvation. The Son gives Himself to us through the Sacraments. The Holy Spirit gives wisdom to us as we come to know God in an intimate way, a foretaste of the knowledge which will be ours in the Beatific Vision and at the end of time when Christ comes again. And the Triune God does all this in order to bring us to Himself in eternal life!

Today, the Gospel reading is the genealogy of Jesus Christ according to Matthew's Gospel. Many often wonder why we have to have this reading of a list of names. It sounds long and boring. The names are strange to us. Plus, the reading will occur again at the Vigil Mass for the Nativity of the Lord, and then Luke's genealogy is read to us during the Christmas season. Why?

I have always felt it is in order to remind us that God has a plan and that plan will not be prevented by man. When we read Matthew's genealogy, we see some people in that line who did terrible things. Abijah led the people into idolatry; Manasseh sacrificed children to the gods. Even among the righteous there are sins. Jacob deceived his father Isaac into giving him his blessing; David had Uriah killed and committed adultery with Bathsheba. Yet the Messiah still comes.

There is an interpretation of all this that God works with broken instruments. While a valid interpretation, I prefer to see as an overall theme the idea that nothing will thwart God. Pharaoh in Egypt learned it when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and all the Egyptians were drowned. Constantly Israel's Pagan neighbors learned it because they were not able to conquer Israel, as long as Israel was faithful to the Lord God. Nevertheless, Israel was not able to grasp this truth. How often we see them turning away from God! They kill the prophets! They fall into every sort of sin, and then, when the Messiah comes, they do not recognize Him.

Why were they not able to have the wisdom to recognize Jesus? It was because they did not have the foundational gift, fear of the Lord. Let us not be like them. Let us, in these final days of Advent, foster humility. Let us realize that God is God, and we are not. Let us realize that we cannot thwart his plans, nor is there any reason we would want to. His plan is ultimately to bring us to salvation. If we learn humility and are able to see God as He is, then we will be able to have the wisdom to see His plan and to come to our salvation.